conclusions of research papers

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How to Write a Conclusion for Research Papers (with Examples)

The conclusion of a research paper is a crucial section that plays a significant role in the overall impact and effectiveness of your research paper. However, this is also the section that typically receives less attention compared to the introduction and the body of the paper. The conclusion serves to provide a concise summary of the key findings, their significance, their implications, and a sense of closure to the study. Discussing how can the findings be applied in real-world scenarios or inform policy, practice, or decision-making is especially valuable to practitioners and policymakers. The research paper conclusion also provides researchers with clear insights and valuable information for their own work, which they can then build on and contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field.

The research paper conclusion should explain the significance of your findings within the broader context of your field. It restates how your results contribute to the existing body of knowledge and whether they confirm or challenge existing theories or hypotheses. Also, by identifying unanswered questions or areas requiring further investigation, your awareness of the broader research landscape can be demonstrated.

Remember to tailor the research paper conclusion to the specific needs and interests of your intended audience, which may include researchers, practitioners, policymakers, or a combination of these.

Table of Contents

What is a conclusion in a research paper, summarizing conclusion, editorial conclusion, externalizing conclusion, importance of a good research paper conclusion, how to write a conclusion for your research paper, research paper conclusion examples.

• How to write a research paper conclusion with Paperpal? 

Frequently Asked Questions

A conclusion in a research paper is the final section where you summarize and wrap up your research, presenting the key findings and insights derived from your study. The research paper conclusion is not the place to introduce new information or data that was not discussed in the main body of the paper. When working on how to conclude a research paper, remember to stick to summarizing and interpreting existing content. The research paper conclusion serves the following purposes: 1

• Warn readers of the possible consequences of not attending to the problem.
• Recommend specific course(s) of action.
• Restate key ideas to drive home the ultimate point of your research paper.
• Provide a “take-home” message that you want the readers to remember about your study.

Types of conclusions for research papers

In research papers, the conclusion provides closure to the reader. The type of research paper conclusion you choose depends on the nature of your study, your goals, and your target audience. I provide you with three common types of conclusions:

A summarizing conclusion is the most common type of conclusion in research papers. It involves summarizing the main points, reiterating the research question, and restating the significance of the findings. This common type of research paper conclusion is used across different disciplines.

An editorial conclusion is less common but can be used in research papers that are focused on proposing or advocating for a particular viewpoint or policy. It involves presenting a strong editorial or opinion based on the research findings and offering recommendations or calls to action.

An externalizing conclusion is a type of conclusion that extends the research beyond the scope of the paper by suggesting potential future research directions or discussing the broader implications of the findings. This type of conclusion is often used in more theoretical or exploratory research papers.

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The conclusion in a research paper serves several important purposes:

• Offers Implications and Recommendations : Your research paper conclusion is an excellent place to discuss the broader implications of your research and suggest potential areas for further study. It’s also an opportunity to offer practical recommendations based on your findings.
• Provides Closure : A good research paper conclusion provides a sense of closure to your paper. It should leave the reader with a feeling that they have reached the end of a well-structured and thought-provoking research project.
• Leaves a Lasting Impression : Writing a well-crafted research paper conclusion leaves a lasting impression on your readers. It’s your final opportunity to leave them with a new idea, a call to action, or a memorable quote.

Writing a strong conclusion for your research paper is essential to leave a lasting impression on your readers. Here’s a step-by-step process to help you create and know what to put in the conclusion of a research paper: 2

• Research Statement : Begin your research paper conclusion by restating your research statement. This reminds the reader of the main point you’ve been trying to prove throughout your paper. Keep it concise and clear.
• Key Points : Summarize the main arguments and key points you’ve made in your paper. Avoid introducing new information in the research paper conclusion. Instead, provide a concise overview of what you’ve discussed in the body of your paper.
• Address the Research Questions : If your research paper is based on specific research questions or hypotheses, briefly address whether you’ve answered them or achieved your research goals. Discuss the significance of your findings in this context.
• Significance : Highlight the importance of your research and its relevance in the broader context. Explain why your findings matter and how they contribute to the existing knowledge in your field.
• Implications : Explore the practical or theoretical implications of your research. How might your findings impact future research, policy, or real-world applications? Consider the “so what?” question.
• Future Research : Offer suggestions for future research in your area. What questions or aspects remain unanswered or warrant further investigation? This shows that your work opens the door for future exploration.
• Closing Thought : Conclude your research paper conclusion with a thought-provoking or memorable statement. This can leave a lasting impression on your readers and wrap up your paper effectively. Avoid introducing new information or arguments here.
• Proofread and Revise : Carefully proofread your conclusion for grammar, spelling, and clarity. Ensure that your ideas flow smoothly and that your conclusion is coherent and well-structured.

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Remember that a well-crafted research paper conclusion is a reflection of the strength of your research and your ability to communicate its significance effectively. It should leave a lasting impression on your readers and tie together all the threads of your paper. Now you know how to start the conclusion of a research paper and what elements to include to make it impactful, let’s look at a research paper conclusion sample.

How to write a research paper conclusion with Paperpal?

A research paper conclusion is not just a summary of your study, but a synthesis of the key findings that ties the research together and places it in a broader context. A research paper conclusion should be concise, typically around one paragraph in length. However, some complex topics may require a longer conclusion to ensure the reader is left with a clear understanding of the study’s significance. Paperpal, an AI writing assistant trusted by over 800,000 academics globally, can help you write a well-structured conclusion for your research paper. 

• Sign Up or Log In: Create a new Paperpal account or login with your details.  
• Navigate to Features : Once logged in, head over to the features’ side navigation pane. Click on Templates and you’ll find a suite of generative AI features to help you write better, faster.  
• Generate an outline: Under Templates, select ‘Outlines’. Choose ‘Research article’ as your document type.  
• Select your section: Since you’re focusing on the conclusion, select this section when prompted.  
• Choose your field of study: Identifying your field of study allows Paperpal to provide more targeted suggestions, ensuring the relevance of your conclusion to your specific area of research. 
• Provide a brief description of your study: Enter details about your research topic and findings. This information helps Paperpal generate a tailored outline that aligns with your paper’s content. 
• Generate the conclusion outline: After entering all necessary details, click on ‘generate’. Paperpal will then create a structured outline for your conclusion, to help you start writing and build upon the outline.  
• Write your conclusion: Use the generated outline to build your conclusion. The outline serves as a guide, ensuring you cover all critical aspects of a strong conclusion, from summarizing key findings to highlighting the research’s implications. 
• Refine and enhance: Paperpal’s ‘Make Academic’ feature can be particularly useful in the final stages. Select any paragraph of your conclusion and use this feature to elevate the academic tone, ensuring your writing is aligned to the academic journal standards. 

By following these steps, Paperpal not only simplifies the process of writing a research paper conclusion but also ensures it is impactful, concise, and aligned with academic standards. Sign up with Paperpal today and write your research paper conclusion 2x faster .  

The research paper conclusion is a crucial part of your paper as it provides the final opportunity to leave a strong impression on your readers. In the research paper conclusion, summarize the main points of your research paper by restating your research statement, highlighting the most important findings, addressing the research questions or objectives, explaining the broader context of the study, discussing the significance of your findings, providing recommendations if applicable, and emphasizing the takeaway message. The main purpose of the conclusion is to remind the reader of the main point or argument of your paper and to provide a clear and concise summary of the key findings and their implications. All these elements should feature on your list of what to put in the conclusion of a research paper to create a strong final statement for your work.

A strong conclusion is a critical component of a research paper, as it provides an opportunity to wrap up your arguments, reiterate your main points, and leave a lasting impression on your readers. Here are the key elements of a strong research paper conclusion: 1. Conciseness : A research paper conclusion should be concise and to the point. It should not introduce new information or ideas that were not discussed in the body of the paper. 2. Summarization : The research paper conclusion should be comprehensive enough to give the reader a clear understanding of the research’s main contributions. 3 . Relevance : Ensure that the information included in the research paper conclusion is directly relevant to the research paper’s main topic and objectives; avoid unnecessary details. 4 . Connection to the Introduction : A well-structured research paper conclusion often revisits the key points made in the introduction and shows how the research has addressed the initial questions or objectives. 5. Emphasis : Highlight the significance and implications of your research. Why is your study important? What are the broader implications or applications of your findings? 6 . Call to Action : Include a call to action or a recommendation for future research or action based on your findings.

The length of a research paper conclusion can vary depending on several factors, including the overall length of the paper, the complexity of the research, and the specific journal requirements. While there is no strict rule for the length of a conclusion, but it’s generally advisable to keep it relatively short. A typical research paper conclusion might be around 5-10% of the paper’s total length. For example, if your paper is 10 pages long, the conclusion might be roughly half a page to one page in length.

In general, you do not need to include citations in the research paper conclusion. Citations are typically reserved for the body of the paper to support your arguments and provide evidence for your claims. However, there may be some exceptions to this rule: 1. If you are drawing a direct quote or paraphrasing a specific source in your research paper conclusion, you should include a citation to give proper credit to the original author. 2. If your conclusion refers to or discusses specific research, data, or sources that are crucial to the overall argument, citations can be included to reinforce your conclusion’s validity.

The conclusion of a research paper serves several important purposes: 1. Summarize the Key Points 2. Reinforce the Main Argument 3. Provide Closure 4. Offer Insights or Implications 5. Engage the Reader. 6. Reflect on Limitations

Remember that the primary purpose of the research paper conclusion is to leave a lasting impression on the reader, reinforcing the key points and providing closure to your research. It’s often the last part of the paper that the reader will see, so it should be strong and well-crafted.

• Makar, G., Foltz, C., Lendner, M., & Vaccaro, A. R. (2018). How to write effective discussion and conclusion sections. Clinical spine surgery, 31(8), 345-346.
• Bunton, D. (2005). The structure of PhD conclusion chapters.  Journal of English for academic purposes ,  4 (3), 207-224.

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Home » Research Paper Conclusion – Writing Guide and Examples

Research Paper Conclusion – Writing Guide and Examples

Table of Contents

Research Paper Conclusion

Definition:

A research paper conclusion is the final section of a research paper that summarizes the key findings, significance, and implications of the research. It is the writer’s opportunity to synthesize the information presented in the paper, draw conclusions, and make recommendations for future research or actions.

The conclusion should provide a clear and concise summary of the research paper, reiterating the research question or problem, the main results, and the significance of the findings. It should also discuss the limitations of the study and suggest areas for further research.

Parts of Research Paper Conclusion

The parts of a research paper conclusion typically include:

Restatement of the Thesis

The conclusion should begin by restating the thesis statement from the introduction in a different way. This helps to remind the reader of the main argument or purpose of the research.

Summary of Key Findings

The conclusion should summarize the main findings of the research, highlighting the most important results and conclusions. This section should be brief and to the point.

Implications and Significance

In this section, the researcher should explain the implications and significance of the research findings. This may include discussing the potential impact on the field or industry, highlighting new insights or knowledge gained, or pointing out areas for future research.

Limitations and Recommendations

It is important to acknowledge any limitations or weaknesses of the research and to make recommendations for how these could be addressed in future studies. This shows that the researcher is aware of the potential limitations of their work and is committed to improving the quality of research in their field.

Concluding Statement

The conclusion should end with a strong concluding statement that leaves a lasting impression on the reader. This could be a call to action, a recommendation for further research, or a final thought on the topic.

How to Write Research Paper Conclusion

Here are some steps you can follow to write an effective research paper conclusion:

• Restate the research problem or question: Begin by restating the research problem or question that you aimed to answer in your research. This will remind the reader of the purpose of your study.
• Summarize the main points: Summarize the key findings and results of your research. This can be done by highlighting the most important aspects of your research and the evidence that supports them.
• Discuss the implications: Discuss the implications of your findings for the research area and any potential applications of your research. You should also mention any limitations of your research that may affect the interpretation of your findings.
• Provide a conclusion : Provide a concise conclusion that summarizes the main points of your paper and emphasizes the significance of your research. This should be a strong and clear statement that leaves a lasting impression on the reader.
• Offer suggestions for future research: Lastly, offer suggestions for future research that could build on your findings and contribute to further advancements in the field.

Remember that the conclusion should be brief and to the point, while still effectively summarizing the key findings and implications of your research.

Example of Research Paper Conclusion

Here’s an example of a research paper conclusion:

Conclusion :

In conclusion, our study aimed to investigate the relationship between social media use and mental health among college students. Our findings suggest that there is a significant association between social media use and increased levels of anxiety and depression among college students. This highlights the need for increased awareness and education about the potential negative effects of social media use on mental health, particularly among college students.

Despite the limitations of our study, such as the small sample size and self-reported data, our findings have important implications for future research and practice. Future studies should aim to replicate our findings in larger, more diverse samples, and investigate the potential mechanisms underlying the association between social media use and mental health. In addition, interventions should be developed to promote healthy social media use among college students, such as mindfulness-based approaches and social media detox programs.

Overall, our study contributes to the growing body of research on the impact of social media on mental health, and highlights the importance of addressing this issue in the context of higher education. By raising awareness and promoting healthy social media use among college students, we can help to reduce the negative impact of social media on mental health and improve the well-being of young adults.

Purpose of Research Paper Conclusion

The purpose of a research paper conclusion is to provide a summary and synthesis of the key findings, significance, and implications of the research presented in the paper. The conclusion serves as the final opportunity for the writer to convey their message and leave a lasting impression on the reader.

The conclusion should restate the research problem or question, summarize the main results of the research, and explain their significance. It should also acknowledge the limitations of the study and suggest areas for future research or action.

Overall, the purpose of the conclusion is to provide a sense of closure to the research paper and to emphasize the importance of the research and its potential impact. It should leave the reader with a clear understanding of the main findings and why they matter. The conclusion serves as the writer’s opportunity to showcase their contribution to the field and to inspire further research and action.

When to Write Research Paper Conclusion

The conclusion of a research paper should be written after the body of the paper has been completed. It should not be written until the writer has thoroughly analyzed and interpreted their findings and has written a complete and cohesive discussion of the research.

Before writing the conclusion, the writer should review their research paper and consider the key points that they want to convey to the reader. They should also review the research question, hypotheses, and methodology to ensure that they have addressed all of the necessary components of the research.

Once the writer has a clear understanding of the main findings and their significance, they can begin writing the conclusion. The conclusion should be written in a clear and concise manner, and should reiterate the main points of the research while also providing insights and recommendations for future research or action.

Characteristics of Research Paper Conclusion

The characteristics of a research paper conclusion include:

• Clear and concise: The conclusion should be written in a clear and concise manner, summarizing the key findings and their significance.
• Comprehensive: The conclusion should address all of the main points of the research paper, including the research question or problem, the methodology, the main results, and their implications.
• Future-oriented : The conclusion should provide insights and recommendations for future research or action, based on the findings of the research.
• Impressive : The conclusion should leave a lasting impression on the reader, emphasizing the importance of the research and its potential impact.
• Objective : The conclusion should be based on the evidence presented in the research paper, and should avoid personal biases or opinions.
• Unique : The conclusion should be unique to the research paper and should not simply repeat information from the introduction or body of the paper.

Advantages of Research Paper Conclusion

The advantages of a research paper conclusion include:

• Summarizing the key findings : The conclusion provides a summary of the main findings of the research, making it easier for the reader to understand the key points of the study.
• Emphasizing the significance of the research: The conclusion emphasizes the importance of the research and its potential impact, making it more likely that readers will take the research seriously and consider its implications.
• Providing recommendations for future research or action : The conclusion suggests practical recommendations for future research or action, based on the findings of the study.
• Providing closure to the research paper : The conclusion provides a sense of closure to the research paper, tying together the different sections of the paper and leaving a lasting impression on the reader.
• Demonstrating the writer’s contribution to the field : The conclusion provides the writer with an opportunity to showcase their contribution to the field and to inspire further research and action.

Limitations of Research Paper Conclusion

While the conclusion of a research paper has many advantages, it also has some limitations that should be considered, including:

• I nability to address all aspects of the research: Due to the limited space available in the conclusion, it may not be possible to address all aspects of the research in detail.
• Subjectivity : While the conclusion should be objective, it may be influenced by the writer’s personal biases or opinions.
• Lack of new information: The conclusion should not introduce new information that has not been discussed in the body of the research paper.
• Lack of generalizability: The conclusions drawn from the research may not be applicable to other contexts or populations, limiting the generalizability of the study.
• Misinterpretation by the reader: The reader may misinterpret the conclusions drawn from the research, leading to a misunderstanding of the findings.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

• 9. The Conclusion
• Purpose of Guide
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• Glossary of Research Terms
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The conclusion is intended to help the reader understand why your research should matter to them after they have finished reading the paper. A conclusion is not merely a summary of the main topics covered or a re-statement of your research problem, but a synthesis of key points derived from the findings of your study and, if applicable, where you recommend new areas for future research. For most college-level research papers, two or three well-developed paragraphs is sufficient for a conclusion, although in some cases, more paragraphs may be required in describing the key findings and their significance.

Conclusions. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Conclusions. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University.

Importance of a Good Conclusion

A well-written conclusion provides you with important opportunities to demonstrate to the reader your understanding of the research problem. These include:

• Presenting the last word on the issues you raised in your paper . Just as the introduction gives a first impression to your reader, the conclusion offers a chance to leave a lasting impression. Do this, for example, by highlighting key findings in your analysis that advance new understanding about the research problem, that are unusual or unexpected, or that have important implications applied to practice.
• Summarizing your thoughts and conveying the larger significance of your study . The conclusion is an opportunity to succinctly re-emphasize  your answer to the "So What?" question by placing the study within the context of how your research advances past research about the topic.
• Identifying how a gap in the literature has been addressed . The conclusion can be where you describe how a previously identified gap in the literature [first identified in your literature review section] has been addressed by your research and why this contribution is significant.
• Demonstrating the importance of your ideas . Don't be shy. The conclusion offers an opportunity to elaborate on the impact and significance of your findings. This is particularly important if your study approached examining the research problem from an unusual or innovative perspective.
• Introducing possible new or expanded ways of thinking about the research problem . This does not refer to introducing new information [which should be avoided], but to offer new insight and creative approaches for framing or contextualizing the research problem based on the results of your study.

Bunton, David. “The Structure of PhD Conclusion Chapters.” Journal of English for Academic Purposes 4 (July 2005): 207–224; Conclusions. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Kretchmer, Paul. Twelve Steps to Writing an Effective Conclusion. San Francisco Edit, 2003-2008; Conclusions. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Assan, Joseph. "Writing the Conclusion Chapter: The Good, the Bad and the Missing." Liverpool: Development Studies Association (2009): 1-8.

Structure and Writing Style

I.  General Rules

The general function of your paper's conclusion is to restate the main argument . It reminds the reader of the strengths of your main argument(s) and reiterates the most important evidence supporting those argument(s). Do this by clearly summarizing the context, background, and necessity of pursuing the research problem you investigated in relation to an issue, controversy, or a gap found in the literature. However, make sure that your conclusion is not simply a repetitive summary of the findings. This reduces the impact of the argument(s) you have developed in your paper.

When writing the conclusion to your paper, follow these general rules:

• Present your conclusions in clear, concise language. Re-state the purpose of your study, then describe how your findings differ or support those of other studies and why [i.e., what were the unique, new, or crucial contributions your study made to the overall research about your topic?].
• Do not simply reiterate your findings or the discussion of your results. Provide a synthesis of arguments presented in the paper to show how these converge to address the research problem and the overall objectives of your study.
• Indicate opportunities for future research if you haven't already done so in the discussion section of your paper. Highlighting the need for further research provides the reader with evidence that you have an in-depth awareness of the research problem but that further investigations should take place beyond the scope of your investigation.

Consider the following points to help ensure your conclusion is presented well:

• If the argument or purpose of your paper is complex, you may need to summarize the argument for your reader.
• If, prior to your conclusion, you have not yet explained the significance of your findings or if you are proceeding inductively, use the end of your paper to describe your main points and explain their significance.
• Move from a detailed to a general level of consideration that returns the topic to the context provided by the introduction or within a new context that emerges from the data [this is opposite of the introduction, which begins with general discussion of the context and ends with a detailed description of the research problem]. 

The conclusion also provides a place for you to persuasively and succinctly restate the research problem, given that the reader has now been presented with all the information about the topic . Depending on the discipline you are writing in, the concluding paragraph may contain your reflections on the evidence presented. However, the nature of being introspective about the research you have conducted will depend on the topic and whether your professor wants you to express your observations in this way. If asked to think introspectively about the topics, do not delve into idle speculation. Being introspective means looking within yourself as an author to try and understand an issue more deeply, not to guess at possible outcomes or make up scenarios not supported by the evidence.

II.  Developing a Compelling Conclusion

Although an effective conclusion needs to be clear and succinct, it does not need to be written passively or lack a compelling narrative. Strategies to help you move beyond merely summarizing the key points of your research paper may include any of the following:

• If your essay deals with a critical, contemporary problem, warn readers of the possible consequences of not attending to the problem proactively.
• Recommend a specific course or courses of action that, if adopted, could address a specific problem in practice or in the development of new knowledge leading to positive change.
• Cite a relevant quotation or expert opinion already noted in your paper in order to lend authority and support to the conclusion(s) you have reached [a good source would be from your literature review].
• Explain the consequences of your research in a way that elicits action or demonstrates urgency in seeking change.
• Restate a key statistic, fact, or visual image to emphasize the most important finding of your paper.
• If your discipline encourages personal reflection, illustrate your concluding point by drawing from your own life experiences.
• Return to an anecdote, an example, or a quotation that you presented in your introduction, but add further insight derived from the findings of your study; use your interpretation of results from your study to recast it in new or important ways.
• Provide a "take-home" message in the form of a succinct, declarative statement that you want the reader to remember about your study.

III. Problems to Avoid

Failure to be concise Your conclusion section should be concise and to the point. Conclusions that are too lengthy often have unnecessary information in them. The conclusion is not the place for details about your methodology or results. Although you should give a summary of what was learned from your research, this summary should be relatively brief, since the emphasis in the conclusion is on the implications, evaluations, insights, and other forms of analysis that you make. Strategies for writing concisely can be found here .

Failure to comment on larger, more significant issues In the introduction, your task was to move from the general [the field of study] to the specific [the research problem]. However, in the conclusion, your task is to move from a specific discussion [your research problem] back to a general discussion framed around the implications and significance of your findings [i.e., how your research contributes new understanding or fills an important gap in the literature]. In short, the conclusion is where you should place your research within a larger context [visualize your paper as an hourglass--start with a broad introduction and review of the literature, move to the specific analysis and discussion, conclude with a broad summary of the study's implications and significance].

Failure to reveal problems and negative results Negative aspects of the research process should never be ignored. These are problems, deficiencies, or challenges encountered during your study. They should be summarized as a way of qualifying your overall conclusions. If you encountered negative or unintended results [i.e., findings that are validated outside the research context in which they were generated], you must report them in the results section and discuss their implications in the discussion section of your paper. In the conclusion, use negative results as an opportunity to explain their possible significance and/or how they may form the basis for future research.

Failure to provide a clear summary of what was learned In order to be able to discuss how your research fits within your field of study [and possibly the world at large], you need to summarize briefly and succinctly how it contributes to new knowledge or a new understanding about the research problem. This element of your conclusion may be only a few sentences long.

Failure to match the objectives of your research Often research objectives in the social and behavioral sciences change while the research is being carried out. This is not a problem unless you forget to go back and refine the original objectives in your introduction. As these changes emerge they must be documented so that they accurately reflect what you were trying to accomplish in your research [not what you thought you might accomplish when you began].

Resist the urge to apologize If you've immersed yourself in studying the research problem, you presumably should know a good deal about it [perhaps even more than your professor!]. Nevertheless, by the time you have finished writing, you may be having some doubts about what you have produced. Repress those doubts! Don't undermine your authority as a researcher by saying something like, "This is just one approach to examining this problem; there may be other, much better approaches that...." The overall tone of your conclusion should convey confidence to the reader about the study's validity and realiability.

Assan, Joseph. "Writing the Conclusion Chapter: The Good, the Bad and the Missing." Liverpool: Development Studies Association (2009): 1-8; Concluding Paragraphs. College Writing Center at Meramec. St. Louis Community College; Conclusions. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Conclusions. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Freedman, Leora  and Jerry Plotnick. Introductions and Conclusions. The Lab Report. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Leibensperger, Summer. Draft Your Conclusion. Academic Center, the University of Houston-Victoria, 2003; Make Your Last Words Count. The Writer’s Handbook. Writing Center. University of Wisconsin Madison; Miquel, Fuster-Marquez and Carmen Gregori-Signes. “Chapter Six: ‘Last but Not Least:’ Writing the Conclusion of Your Paper.” In Writing an Applied Linguistics Thesis or Dissertation: A Guide to Presenting Empirical Research . John Bitchener, editor. (Basingstoke,UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. 93-105; Tips for Writing a Good Conclusion. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Kretchmer, Paul. Twelve Steps to Writing an Effective Conclusion. San Francisco Edit, 2003-2008; Writing Conclusions. Writing Tutorial Services, Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. Indiana University; Writing: Considering Structure and Organization. Institute for Writing Rhetoric. Dartmouth College.

Writing Tip

Don't Belabor the Obvious!

Avoid phrases like "in conclusion...," "in summary...," or "in closing...." These phrases can be useful, even welcome, in oral presentations. But readers can see by the tell-tale section heading and number of pages remaining that they are reaching the end of your paper. You'll irritate your readers if you belabor the obvious.

Assan, Joseph. "Writing the Conclusion Chapter: The Good, the Bad and the Missing." Liverpool: Development Studies Association (2009): 1-8.

Another Writing Tip

New Insight, Not New Information!

Don't surprise the reader with new information in your conclusion that was never referenced anywhere else in the paper. This why the conclusion rarely has citations to sources. If you have new information to present, add it to the discussion or other appropriate section of the paper. Note that, although no new information is introduced, the conclusion, along with the discussion section, is where you offer your most "original" contributions in the paper; the conclusion is where you describe the value of your research, demonstrate that you understand the material that you’ve presented, and position your findings within the larger context of scholarship on the topic, including describing how your research contributes new insights to that scholarship.

Assan, Joseph. "Writing the Conclusion Chapter: The Good, the Bad and the Missing." Liverpool: Development Studies Association (2009): 1-8; Conclusions. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina.

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In a short paper—even a research paper—you don’t need to provide an exhaustive summary as part of your conclusion. But you do need to make some kind of transition between your final body paragraph and your concluding paragraph. This may come in the form of a few sentences of summary. Or it may come in the form of a sentence that brings your readers back to your thesis or main idea and reminds your readers where you began and how far you have traveled.

So, for example, in a paper about the relationship between ADHD and rejection sensitivity, Vanessa Roser begins by introducing readers to the fact that researchers have studied the relationship between the two conditions and then provides her explanation of that relationship. Here’s her thesis: “While socialization may indeed be an important factor in RS, I argue that individuals with ADHD may also possess a neurological predisposition to RS that is exacerbated by the differing executive and emotional regulation characteristic of ADHD.”

In her final paragraph, Roser reminds us of where she started by echoing her thesis: “This literature demonstrates that, as with many other conditions, ADHD and RS share a delicately intertwined pattern of neurological similarities that is rooted in the innate biology of an individual’s mind, a connection that cannot be explained in full by the behavioral mediation hypothesis.”  

Highlight the “so what”  

At the beginning of your paper, you explain to your readers what’s at stake—why they should care about the argument you’re making. In your conclusion, you can bring readers back to those stakes by reminding them why your argument is important in the first place. You can also draft a few sentences that put those stakes into a new or broader context.

In the conclusion to her paper about ADHD and RS, Roser echoes the stakes she established in her introduction—that research into connections between ADHD and RS has led to contradictory results, raising questions about the “behavioral mediation hypothesis.”

She writes, “as with many other conditions, ADHD and RS share a delicately intertwined pattern of neurological similarities that is rooted in the innate biology of an individual’s mind, a connection that cannot be explained in full by the behavioral mediation hypothesis.”  

Leave your readers with the “now what”  

After the “what” and the “so what,” you should leave your reader with some final thoughts. If you have written a strong introduction, your readers will know why you have been arguing what you have been arguing—and why they should care. And if you’ve made a good case for your thesis, then your readers should be in a position to see things in a new way, understand new questions, or be ready for something that they weren’t ready for before they read your paper.

In her conclusion, Roser offers two “now what” statements. First, she explains that it is important to recognize that the flawed behavioral mediation hypothesis “seems to place a degree of fault on the individual. It implies that individuals with ADHD must have elicited such frequent or intense rejection by virtue of their inadequate social skills, erasing the possibility that they may simply possess a natural sensitivity to emotion.” She then highlights the broader implications for treatment of people with ADHD, noting that recognizing the actual connection between rejection sensitivity and ADHD “has profound implications for understanding how individuals with ADHD might best be treated in educational settings, by counselors, family, peers, or even society as a whole.”

To find your own “now what” for your essay’s conclusion, try asking yourself these questions:

• What can my readers now understand, see in a new light, or grapple with that they would not have understood in the same way before reading my paper? Are we a step closer to understanding a larger phenomenon or to understanding why what was at stake is so important?  
• What questions can I now raise that would not have made sense at the beginning of my paper? Questions for further research? Other ways that this topic could be approached?  
• Are there other applications for my research? Could my questions be asked about different data in a different context? Could I use my methods to answer a different question?  
• What action should be taken in light of this argument? What action do I predict will be taken or could lead to a solution?  
• What larger context might my argument be a part of?  

What to avoid in your conclusion  

• a complete restatement of all that you have said in your paper.  
• a substantial counterargument that you do not have space to refute; you should introduce counterarguments before your conclusion.  
• an apology for what you have not said. If you need to explain the scope of your paper, you should do this sooner—but don’t apologize for what you have not discussed in your paper.  
• fake transitions like “in conclusion” that are followed by sentences that aren’t actually conclusions. (“In conclusion, I have now demonstrated that my thesis is correct.”)
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• Writing Tips

How to Write a Conclusion for a Research Paper

3-minute read

• 29th August 2023

If you’re writing a research paper, the conclusion is your opportunity to summarize your findings and leave a lasting impression on your readers. In this post, we’ll take you through how to write an effective conclusion for a research paper and how you can:

·   Reword your thesis statement

·   Highlight the significance of your research

·   Discuss limitations

·   Connect to the introduction

·   End with a thought-provoking statement

Rewording Your Thesis Statement

Begin your conclusion by restating your thesis statement in a way that is slightly different from the wording used in the introduction. Avoid presenting new information or evidence in your conclusion. Just summarize the main points and arguments of your essay and keep this part as concise as possible. Remember that you’ve already covered the in-depth analyses and investigations in the main body paragraphs of your essay, so it’s not necessary to restate these details in the conclusion.

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Highlighting the Significance of Your Research

The conclusion is a good place to emphasize the implications of your research . Avoid ambiguous or vague language such as “I think” or “maybe,” which could weaken your position. Clearly explain why your research is significant and how it contributes to the broader field of study.

Here’s an example from a (fictional) study on the impact of social media on mental health:

Discussing Limitations

Although it’s important to emphasize the significance of your study, you can also use the conclusion to briefly address any limitations you discovered while conducting your research, such as time constraints or a shortage of resources. Doing this demonstrates a balanced and honest approach to your research.

Connecting to the Introduction

In your conclusion, you can circle back to your introduction , perhaps by referring to a quote or anecdote you discussed earlier. If you end your paper on a similar note to how you began it, you will create a sense of cohesion for the reader and remind them of the meaning and significance of your research.

Ending With a Thought-Provoking Statement

Consider ending your paper with a thought-provoking and memorable statement that relates to the impact of your research questions or hypothesis. This statement can be a call to action, a philosophical question, or a prediction for the future (positive or negative). Here’s an example that uses the same topic as above (social media and mental health):

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How to write a strong conclusion for your research paper

Last updated

17 February 2024

Reviewed by

Writing a research paper is a chance to share your knowledge and hypothesis. It's an opportunity to demonstrate your many hours of research and prove your ability to write convincingly.

Ideally, by the end of your research paper, you'll have brought your readers on a journey to reach the conclusions you've pre-determined. However, if you don't stick the landing with a good conclusion, you'll risk losing your reader’s trust.

Writing a strong conclusion for your research paper involves a few important steps, including restating the thesis and summing up everything properly.

Find out what to include and what to avoid, so you can effectively demonstrate your understanding of the topic and prove your expertise.

• Why is a good conclusion important?

A good conclusion can cement your paper in the reader’s mind. Making a strong impression in your introduction can draw your readers in, but it's the conclusion that will inspire them.

• What to include in a research paper conclusion

There are a few specifics you should include in your research paper conclusion. Offer your readers some sense of urgency or consequence by pointing out why they should care about the topic you have covered. Discuss any common problems associated with your topic and provide suggestions as to how these problems can be solved or addressed.

The conclusion should include a restatement of your initial thesis. Thesis statements are strengthened after you’ve presented supporting evidence (as you will have done in the paper), so make a point to reintroduce it at the end.

Finally, recap the main points of your research paper, highlighting the key takeaways you want readers to remember. If you've made multiple points throughout the paper, refer to the ones with the strongest supporting evidence.

• Steps for writing a research paper conclusion

Many writers find the conclusion the most challenging part of any research project . By following these three steps, you'll be prepared to write a conclusion that is effective and concise.

• Step 1: Restate the problem

Always begin by restating the research problem in the conclusion of a research paper. This serves to remind the reader of your hypothesis and refresh them on the main point of the paper. 

When restating the problem, take care to avoid using exactly the same words you employed earlier in the paper.

• Step 2: Sum up the paper

After you've restated the problem, sum up the paper by revealing your overall findings. The method for this differs slightly, depending on whether you're crafting an argumentative paper or an empirical paper.

Argumentative paper: Restate your thesis and arguments

Argumentative papers involve introducing a thesis statement early on. In crafting the conclusion for an argumentative paper, always restate the thesis, outlining the way you've developed it throughout the entire paper.

It might be appropriate to mention any counterarguments in the conclusion, so you can demonstrate how your thesis is correct or how the data best supports your main points.

Empirical paper: Summarize research findings

Empirical papers break down a series of research questions. In your conclusion, discuss the findings your research revealed, including any information that surprised you.

Be clear about the conclusions you reached, and explain whether or not you expected to arrive at these particular ones.

• Step 3: Discuss the implications of your research

Argumentative papers and empirical papers also differ in this part of a research paper conclusion. Here are some tips on crafting conclusions for argumentative and empirical papers.

Argumentative paper: Powerful closing statement

In an argumentative paper, you'll have spent a great deal of time expressing the opinions you formed after doing a significant amount of research. Make a strong closing statement in your argumentative paper's conclusion to share the significance of your work.

You can outline the next steps through a bold call to action, or restate how powerful your ideas turned out to be.

Empirical paper: Directions for future research

Empirical papers are broader in scope. They usually cover a variety of aspects and can include several points of view.

To write a good conclusion for an empirical paper, suggest the type of research that could be done in the future, including methods for further investigation or outlining ways other researchers might proceed.

If you feel your research had any limitations, even if they were outside your control, you could mention these in your conclusion.

After you finish outlining your conclusion, ask someone to read it and offer feedback. In any research project you're especially close to, it can be hard to identify problem areas. Having a close friend or someone whose opinion you value read the research paper and provide honest feedback can be invaluable. Take note of any suggested edits and consider incorporating them into your paper if they make sense.

• Things to avoid in a research paper conclusion

Keep these aspects to avoid in mind as you're writing your conclusion and refer to them after you've created an outline.

Dry summary

Writing a memorable, succinct conclusion is arguably more important than a strong introduction. Take care to avoid just rephrasing your main points, and don't fall into the trap of repeating dry facts or citations.

You can provide a new perspective for your readers to think about or contextualize your research. Either way, make the conclusion vibrant and interesting, rather than a rote recitation of your research paper’s highlights.

Clichéd or generic phrasing

Your research paper conclusion should feel fresh and inspiring. Avoid generic phrases like "to sum up" or "in conclusion." These phrases tend to be overused, especially in an academic context and might turn your readers off.

The conclusion also isn't the time to introduce colloquial phrases or informal language. Retain a professional, confident tone consistent throughout your paper’s conclusion so it feels exciting and bold.

New data or evidence

While you should present strong data throughout your paper, the conclusion isn't the place to introduce new evidence. This is because readers are engaged in actively learning as they read through the body of your paper.

By the time they reach the conclusion, they will have formed an opinion one way or the other (hopefully in your favor!). Introducing new evidence in the conclusion will only serve to surprise or frustrate your reader.

Ignoring contradictory evidence

If your research reveals contradictory evidence, don't ignore it in the conclusion. This will damage your credibility as an expert and might even serve to highlight the contradictions.

Be as transparent as possible and admit to any shortcomings in your research, but don't dwell on them for too long.

Ambiguous or unclear resolutions

The point of a research paper conclusion is to provide closure and bring all your ideas together. You should wrap up any arguments you introduced in the paper and tie up any loose ends, while demonstrating why your research and data are strong.

Use direct language in your conclusion and avoid ambiguity. Even if some of the data and sources you cite are inconclusive or contradictory, note this in your conclusion to come across as confident and trustworthy.

• Examples of research paper conclusions

Your research paper should provide a compelling close to the paper as a whole, highlighting your research and hard work. While the conclusion should represent your unique style, these examples offer a starting point:

Ultimately, the data we examined all point to the same conclusion: Encouraging a good work-life balance improves employee productivity and benefits the company overall. The research suggests that when employees feel their personal lives are valued and respected by their employers, they are more likely to be productive when at work. In addition, company turnover tends to be reduced when employees have a balance between their personal and professional lives. While additional research is required to establish ways companies can support employees in creating a stronger work-life balance, it's clear the need is there.

Social media is a primary method of communication among young people. As we've seen in the data presented, most young people in high school use a variety of social media applications at least every hour, including Instagram and Facebook. While social media is an avenue for connection with peers, research increasingly suggests that social media use correlates with body image issues. Young girls with lower self-esteem tend to use social media more often than those who don't log onto social media apps every day. As new applications continue to gain popularity, and as more high school students are given smartphones, more research will be required to measure the effects of prolonged social media use.

What are the different kinds of research paper conclusions?

There are no formal types of research paper conclusions. Ultimately, the conclusion depends on the outline of your paper and the type of research you’re presenting. While some experts note that research papers can end with a new perspective or commentary, most papers should conclude with a combination of both. The most important aspect of a good research paper conclusion is that it accurately represents the body of the paper.

Can I present new arguments in my research paper conclusion?

Research paper conclusions are not the place to introduce new data or arguments. The body of your paper is where you should share research and insights, where the reader is actively absorbing the content. By the time a reader reaches the conclusion of the research paper, they should have formed their opinion. Introducing new arguments in the conclusion can take a reader by surprise, and not in a positive way. It might also serve to frustrate readers.

How long should a research paper conclusion be?

There's no set length for a research paper conclusion. However, it's a good idea not to run on too long, since conclusions are supposed to be succinct. A good rule of thumb is to keep your conclusion around 5 to 10 percent of the paper's total length. If your paper is 10 pages, try to keep your conclusion under one page.

What should I include in a research paper conclusion?

A good research paper conclusion should always include a sense of urgency, so the reader can see how and why the topic should matter to them. You can also note some recommended actions to help fix the problem and some obstacles they might encounter. A conclusion should also remind the reader of the thesis statement, along with the main points you covered in the paper. At the end of the conclusion, add a powerful closing statement that helps cement the paper in the mind of the reader.

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How to Write a Conclusion for a Research Paper

Last Updated: May 8, 2024 Approved

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 42 testimonials and 83% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 2,259,696 times.

The conclusion of a research paper needs to summarize the content and purpose of the paper without seeming too wooden or dry. Every basic conclusion must share several key elements, but there are also several tactics you can play around with to craft a more effective conclusion and several you should avoid to prevent yourself from weakening your paper's conclusion. Here are some writing tips to keep in mind when creating a conclusion for your next research paper.

Sample Conclusions

Writing a basic conclusion.

• Do not spend a great amount of time or space restating your topic.
• A good research paper will make the importance of your topic apparent, so you do not need to write an elaborate defense of your topic in the conclusion.
• Usually a single sentence is all you need to restate your topic.
• An example would be if you were writing a paper on the epidemiology of infectious disease, you might say something like "Tuberculosis is a widespread infectious disease that affects millions of people worldwide every year."
• Yet another example from the humanities would be a paper about the Italian Renaissance: "The Italian Renaissance was an explosion of art and ideas centered around artists, writers, and thinkers in Florence."

• A thesis is a narrowed, focused view on the topic at hand.
• This statement should be rephrased from the thesis you included in your introduction. It should not be identical or too similar to the sentence you originally used.
• Try re-wording your thesis statement in a way that complements your summary of the topic of your paper in your first sentence of your conclusion.
• An example of a good thesis statement, going back to the paper on tuberculosis, would be "Tuberculosis is a widespread disease that affects millions of people worldwide every year. Due to the alarming rate of the spread of tuberculosis, particularly in poor countries, medical professionals are implementing new strategies for the diagnosis, treatment, and containment of this disease ."

• A good way to go about this is to re-read the topic sentence of each major paragraph or section in the body of your paper.
• Find a way to briefly restate each point mentioned in each topic sentence in your conclusion. Do not repeat any of the supporting details used within your body paragraphs.
• Under most circumstances, you should avoid writing new information in your conclusion. This is especially true if the information is vital to the argument or research presented in your paper.
• For example, in the TB paper you could summarize the information. "Tuberculosis is a widespread disease that affects millions of people worldwide. Due to the alarming rate of the spread of tuberculosis, particularly in poor countries, medical professionals are implementing new strategies for the diagnosis, treatment, and containment of this disease. In developing countries, such as those in Africa and Southeast Asia, the rate of TB infections is soaring. Crowded conditions, poor sanitation, and lack of access to medical care are all compounding factors in the spread of the disease. Medical experts, such as those from the World Health Organization are now starting campaigns to go into communities in developing countries and provide diagnostic testing and treatments. However, the treatments for TB are very harsh and have many side effects. This leads to patient non-compliance and spread of multi-drug resistant strains of the disease."

• Note that this is not needed for all research papers.
• If you already fully explained what the points in your paper mean or why they are significant, you do not need to go into them in much detail in your conclusion. Simply restating your thesis or the significance of your topic should suffice.
• It is always best practice to address important issues and fully explain your points in the body of your paper. The point of a conclusion to a research paper is to summarize your argument for the reader and, perhaps, to call the reader to action if needed.

• Note that a call for action is not essential to all conclusions. A research paper on literary criticism, for instance, is less likely to need a call for action than a paper on the effect that television has on toddlers and young children.
• A paper that is more likely to call readers to action is one that addresses a public or scientific need. Let's go back to our example of tuberculosis. This is a very serious disease that is spreading quickly and with antibiotic-resistant forms.
• A call to action in this research paper would be a follow-up statement that might be along the lines of "Despite new efforts to diagnose and contain the disease, more research is needed to develop new antibiotics that will treat the most resistant strains of tuberculosis and ease the side effects of current treatments."

• For example, if you are writing a history paper, then you might discuss how the historical topic you discussed matters today. If you are writing about a foreign country, then you might use the conclusion to discuss how the information you shared may help readers understand their own country.

Making Your Conclusion as Effective as Possible

• Since this sort of conclusion is so basic, you must aim to synthesize the information rather than merely summarizing it.
• Instead of merely repeating things you already said, rephrase your thesis and supporting points in a way that ties them all together.
• By doing so, you make your research paper seem like a "complete thought" rather than a collection of random and vaguely related ideas.

• Ask a question in your introduction. In your conclusion, restate the question and provide a direct answer.
• Write an anecdote or story in your introduction but do not share the ending. Instead, write the conclusion to the anecdote in the conclusion of your paper.
• For example, if you wanted to get more creative and put a more humanistic spin on a paper on tuberculosis, you might start your introduction with a story about a person with the disease, and refer to that story in your conclusion. For example, you could say something like this before you re-state your thesis in your conclusion: "Patient X was unable to complete the treatment for tuberculosis due to severe side effects and unfortunately succumbed to the disease."
• Use the same concepts and images introduced in your introduction in your conclusion. The images may or may not appear at other points throughout the research paper.

• Include enough information about your topic to back the statement up but do not get too carried away with excess detail.
• If your research did not provide you with a clear-cut answer to a question posed in your thesis, do not be afraid to indicate as much.
• Restate your initial hypothesis and indicate whether you still believe it or if the research you performed has begun swaying your opinion.
• Indicate that an answer may still exist and that further research could shed more light on the topic at hand.

• This may not be appropriate for all types of research papers. Most research papers, such as one on effective treatment for diseases, will have the information to make the case for a particular argument already in the paper.
• A good example of a paper that might ask a question of the reader in the ending is one about a social issue, such as poverty or government policy.
• Ask a question that will directly get at the heart or purpose of the paper. This question is often the same question, or some version of it, that you may have started with when you began your research.
• Make sure that the question can be answered by the evidence presented in your paper.
• If desired you can briefly summarize the answer after stating the question. You could also leave the question hanging for the reader to answer, though.

• Even without a call to action, you can still make a recommendation to your reader.
• For instance, if you are writing about a topic like third-world poverty, you can various ways for the reader to assist in the problem without necessarily calling for more research.
• Another example would be, in a paper about treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis, you could suggest donating to the World Health Organization or research foundations that are developing new treatments for the disease.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

• These sayings usually sound stiff, unnatural, or trite when used in writing.
• Moreover, using a phrase like "in conclusion" to begin your conclusion is a little too straightforward and tends to lead to a weak conclusion. A strong conclusion can stand on its own without being labeled as such.

• Always state the main argument or thesis in the introduction. A research paper is an analytical discussion of an academic topic, not a mystery novel.
• A good, effective research paper will allow your reader to follow your main argument from start to finish.
• This is why it is best practice to start your paper with an introduction that states your main argument and to end the paper with a conclusion that re-states your thesis for re-iteration.

• All significant information should be introduced in the body of the paper.
• Supporting evidence expands the topic of your paper by making it appear more detailed. A conclusion should narrow the topic to a more general point.
• A conclusion should only summarize what you have already stated in the body of your paper.
• You may suggest further research or a call to action, but you should not bring in any new evidence or facts in the conclusion.

• Most often, a shift in tone occurs when a research paper with an academic tone gives an emotional or sentimental conclusion.
• Even if the topic of the paper is of personal significance for you, you should not indicate as much in your paper.
• If you want to give your paper a more humanistic slant, you could start and end your paper with a story or anecdote that would give your topic more personal meaning to the reader.
• This tone should be consistent throughout the paper, however.

• Apologetic statements include phrases like "I may not be an expert" or "This is only my opinion."
• Statements like this can usually be avoided by refraining from writing in the first-person.
• Avoid any statements in the first-person. First-person is generally considered to be informal and does not fit with the formal tone of a research paper.

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• ↑ http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/724/04/
• ↑ http://www.crlsresearchguide.org/18_Writing_Conclusion.asp
• ↑ http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/PlanResearchPaper.html#conclusion
• ↑ http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/conclusions/
• ↑ http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/conclude.html

About This Article

To write a conclusion for a research paper, start by restating your thesis statement to remind your readers what your main topic is and bring everything full circle. Then, briefly summarize all of the main points you made throughout your paper, which will help remind your readers of everything they learned. You might also want to include a call to action if you think more research or work needs to be done on your topic by writing something like, "Despite efforts to contain the disease, more research is needed to develop antibiotics." Finally, end your conclusion by explaining the broader context of your topic and why your readers should care about it, which will help them understand why your topic is relevant and important. For tips from our Academic co-author, like how to avoid common pitfalls when writing your conclusion, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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The discussion section contains the results and outcomes of a study. An effective discussion informs readers what can be learned from your experiment and provides context for the results.

What makes an effective discussion?

When you’re ready to write your discussion, you’ve already introduced the purpose of your study and provided an in-depth description of the methodology. The discussion informs readers about the larger implications of your study based on the results. Highlighting these implications while not overstating the findings can be challenging, especially when you’re submitting to a journal that selects articles based on novelty or potential impact. Regardless of what journal you are submitting to, the discussion section always serves the same purpose: concluding what your study results actually mean.

A successful discussion section puts your findings in context. It should include:

• the results of your research,
• a discussion of related research, and
• a comparison between your results and initial hypothesis.

Tip: Not all journals share the same naming conventions.

You can apply the advice in this article to the conclusion, results or discussion sections of your manuscript.

Our Early Career Researcher community tells us that the conclusion is often considered the most difficult aspect of a manuscript to write. To help, this guide provides questions to ask yourself, a basic structure to model your discussion off of and examples from published manuscripts. 

Questions to ask yourself:

• Was my hypothesis correct?
• If my hypothesis is partially correct or entirely different, what can be learned from the results? 
• How do the conclusions reshape or add onto the existing knowledge in the field? What does previous research say about the topic? 
• Why are the results important or relevant to your audience? Do they add further evidence to a scientific consensus or disprove prior studies? 
• How can future research build on these observations? What are the key experiments that must be done? 
• What is the “take-home” message you want your reader to leave with?

How to structure a discussion

Trying to fit a complete discussion into a single paragraph can add unnecessary stress to the writing process. If possible, you’ll want to give yourself two or three paragraphs to give the reader a comprehensive understanding of your study as a whole. Here’s one way to structure an effective discussion:

Writing Tips

While the above sections can help you brainstorm and structure your discussion, there are many common mistakes that writers revert to when having difficulties with their paper. Writing a discussion can be a delicate balance between summarizing your results, providing proper context for your research and avoiding introducing new information. Remember that your paper should be both confident and honest about the results! 

• Read the journal’s guidelines on the discussion and conclusion sections. If possible, learn about the guidelines before writing the discussion to ensure you’re writing to meet their expectations. 
• Begin with a clear statement of the principal findings. This will reinforce the main take-away for the reader and set up the rest of the discussion. 
• Explain why the outcomes of your study are important to the reader. Discuss the implications of your findings realistically based on previous literature, highlighting both the strengths and limitations of the research. 
• State whether the results prove or disprove your hypothesis. If your hypothesis was disproved, what might be the reasons? 
• Introduce new or expanded ways to think about the research question. Indicate what next steps can be taken to further pursue any unresolved questions. 
• If dealing with a contemporary or ongoing problem, such as climate change, discuss possible consequences if the problem is avoided. 
• Be concise. Adding unnecessary detail can distract from the main findings. 

Don’t

• Rewrite your abstract. Statements with “we investigated” or “we studied” generally do not belong in the discussion. 
• Include new arguments or evidence not previously discussed. Necessary information and evidence should be introduced in the main body of the paper. 
• Apologize. Even if your research contains significant limitations, don’t undermine your authority by including statements that doubt your methodology or execution. 
• Shy away from speaking on limitations or negative results. Including limitations and negative results will give readers a complete understanding of the presented research. Potential limitations include sources of potential bias, threats to internal or external validity, barriers to implementing an intervention and other issues inherent to the study design. 
• Overstate the importance of your findings. Making grand statements about how a study will fully resolve large questions can lead readers to doubt the success of the research. 

Snippets of Effective Discussions:

Consumer-based actions to reduce plastic pollution in rivers: A multi-criteria decision analysis approach

Identifying reliable indicators of fitness in polar bears

• How to Write a Great Title
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• How to Write Your Methods
• How to Report Statistics
• How to Edit Your Work

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Conclusions

What this handout is about.

This handout will explain the functions of conclusions, offer strategies for writing effective ones, help you evaluate conclusions you’ve drafted, and suggest approaches to avoid.

About conclusions

Introductions and conclusions can be difficult to write, but they’re worth investing time in. They can have a significant influence on a reader’s experience of your paper.

Just as your introduction acts as a bridge that transports your readers from their own lives into the “place” of your analysis, your conclusion can provide a bridge to help your readers make the transition back to their daily lives. Such a conclusion will help them see why all your analysis and information should matter to them after they put the paper down.

Your conclusion is your chance to have the last word on the subject. The conclusion allows you to have the final say on the issues you have raised in your paper, to synthesize your thoughts, to demonstrate the importance of your ideas, and to propel your reader to a new view of the subject. It is also your opportunity to make a good final impression and to end on a positive note.

Your conclusion can go beyond the confines of the assignment. The conclusion pushes beyond the boundaries of the prompt and allows you to consider broader issues, make new connections, and elaborate on the significance of your findings.

Your conclusion should make your readers glad they read your paper. Your conclusion gives your reader something to take away that will help them see things differently or appreciate your topic in personally relevant ways. It can suggest broader implications that will not only interest your reader, but also enrich your reader’s life in some way. It is your gift to the reader.

Strategies for writing an effective conclusion

One or more of the following strategies may help you write an effective conclusion:

• Play the “So What” Game. If you’re stuck and feel like your conclusion isn’t saying anything new or interesting, ask a friend to read it with you. Whenever you make a statement from your conclusion, ask the friend to say, “So what?” or “Why should anybody care?” Then ponder that question and answer it. Here’s how it might go: You: Basically, I’m just saying that education was important to Douglass. Friend: So what? You: Well, it was important because it was a key to him feeling like a free and equal citizen. Friend: Why should anybody care? You: That’s important because plantation owners tried to keep slaves from being educated so that they could maintain control. When Douglass obtained an education, he undermined that control personally. You can also use this strategy on your own, asking yourself “So What?” as you develop your ideas or your draft.
• Return to the theme or themes in the introduction. This strategy brings the reader full circle. For example, if you begin by describing a scenario, you can end with the same scenario as proof that your essay is helpful in creating a new understanding. You may also refer to the introductory paragraph by using key words or parallel concepts and images that you also used in the introduction.
• Synthesize, don’t summarize. Include a brief summary of the paper’s main points, but don’t simply repeat things that were in your paper. Instead, show your reader how the points you made and the support and examples you used fit together. Pull it all together.
• Include a provocative insight or quotation from the research or reading you did for your paper.
• Propose a course of action, a solution to an issue, or questions for further study. This can redirect your reader’s thought process and help them to apply your info and ideas to their own life or to see the broader implications.
• Point to broader implications. For example, if your paper examines the Greensboro sit-ins or another event in the Civil Rights Movement, you could point out its impact on the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. A paper about the style of writer Virginia Woolf could point to her influence on other writers or on later feminists.

Strategies to avoid

• Beginning with an unnecessary, overused phrase such as “in conclusion,” “in summary,” or “in closing.” Although these phrases can work in speeches, they come across as wooden and trite in writing.
• Stating the thesis for the very first time in the conclusion.
• Introducing a new idea or subtopic in your conclusion.
• Ending with a rephrased thesis statement without any substantive changes.
• Making sentimental, emotional appeals that are out of character with the rest of an analytical paper.
• Including evidence (quotations, statistics, etc.) that should be in the body of the paper.

Four kinds of ineffective conclusions

• The “That’s My Story and I’m Sticking to It” Conclusion. This conclusion just restates the thesis and is usually painfully short. It does not push the ideas forward. People write this kind of conclusion when they can’t think of anything else to say. Example: In conclusion, Frederick Douglass was, as we have seen, a pioneer in American education, proving that education was a major force for social change with regard to slavery.
• The “Sherlock Holmes” Conclusion. Sometimes writers will state the thesis for the very first time in the conclusion. You might be tempted to use this strategy if you don’t want to give everything away too early in your paper. You may think it would be more dramatic to keep the reader in the dark until the end and then “wow” them with your main idea, as in a Sherlock Holmes mystery. The reader, however, does not expect a mystery, but an analytical discussion of your topic in an academic style, with the main argument (thesis) stated up front. Example: (After a paper that lists numerous incidents from the book but never says what these incidents reveal about Douglass and his views on education): So, as the evidence above demonstrates, Douglass saw education as a way to undermine the slaveholders’ power and also an important step toward freedom.
• The “America the Beautiful”/”I Am Woman”/”We Shall Overcome” Conclusion. This kind of conclusion usually draws on emotion to make its appeal, but while this emotion and even sentimentality may be very heartfelt, it is usually out of character with the rest of an analytical paper. A more sophisticated commentary, rather than emotional praise, would be a more fitting tribute to the topic. Example: Because of the efforts of fine Americans like Frederick Douglass, countless others have seen the shining beacon of light that is education. His example was a torch that lit the way for others. Frederick Douglass was truly an American hero.
• The “Grab Bag” Conclusion. This kind of conclusion includes extra information that the writer found or thought of but couldn’t integrate into the main paper. You may find it hard to leave out details that you discovered after hours of research and thought, but adding random facts and bits of evidence at the end of an otherwise-well-organized essay can just create confusion. Example: In addition to being an educational pioneer, Frederick Douglass provides an interesting case study for masculinity in the American South. He also offers historians an interesting glimpse into slave resistance when he confronts Covey, the overseer. His relationships with female relatives reveal the importance of family in the slave community.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Douglass, Frederick. 1995. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. New York: Dover.

Hamilton College. n.d. “Conclusions.” Writing Center. Accessed June 14, 2019. https://www.hamilton.edu//academics/centers/writing/writing-resources/conclusions .

Holewa, Randa. 2004. “Strategies for Writing a Conclusion.” LEO: Literacy Education Online. Last updated February 19, 2004. https://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/conclude.html.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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How to Write a Research Paper Conclusion Section

What is a conclusion in a research paper?

The conclusion in a research paper is the final paragraph or two in a research paper. In scientific papers, the conclusion usually follows the Discussion section , summarizing the importance of the findings and reminding the reader why the work presented in the paper is relevant.

However, it can be a bit confusing to distinguish the conclusion section/paragraph from a summary or a repetition of your findings, your own opinion, or the statement of the implications of your work. In fact, the conclusion should contain a bit of all of these other parts but go beyond it—but not too far beyond! 

The structure and content of the conclusion section can also vary depending on whether you are writing a research manuscript or an essay. This article will explain how to write a good conclusion section, what exactly it should (and should not) contain, how it should be structured, and what you should avoid when writing it.  

Table of Contents:

What does a good conclusion section do, what to include in a research paper conclusion.

• Conclusion in an Essay
• Research Paper Conclusion 
• Conclusion Paragraph Outline and Example
• What Not to Do When Writing a Conclusion

The conclusion of a research paper has several key objectives. It should:

• Restate your research problem addressed in the introduction section
• Summarize your main arguments, important findings, and broader implications
• Synthesize key takeaways from your study

The specific content in the conclusion depends on whether your paper presents the results of original scientific research or constructs an argument through engagement with previously published sources.

You presented your general field of study to the reader in the introduction section, by moving from general information (the background of your work, often combined with a literature review ) to the rationale of your study and then to the specific problem or topic you addressed, formulated in the form of the statement of the problem in research or the thesis statement in an essay.

In the conclusion section, in contrast, your task is to move from your specific findings or arguments back to a more general depiction of how your research contributes to the readers’ understanding of a certain concept or helps solve a practical problem, or fills an important gap in the literature. The content of your conclusion section depends on the type of research you are doing and what type of paper you are writing. But whatever the outcome of your work is, the conclusion is where you briefly summarize it and place it within a larger context. It could be called the “take-home message” of the entire paper.

What to summarize in the conclusion

Your conclusion section needs to contain a very brief summary of your work , a very brief summary of the main findings of your work, and a mention of anything else that seems relevant when you now look at your work from a bigger perspective, even if it was not initially listed as one of your main research questions. This could be a limitation, for example, a problem with the design of your experiment that either needs to be considered when drawing any conclusions or that led you to ask a different question and therefore draw different conclusions at the end of your study (compared to when you started out).

Once you have reminded the reader of what you did and what you found, you need to go beyond that and also provide either your own opinion on why your work is relevant (and for whom, and how) or theoretical or practical implications of the study , or make a specific call for action if there is one to be made.   

How to Write an Essay Conclusion

Academic essays follow quite different structures than their counterparts in STEM and the natural sciences. Humanities papers often have conclusion sections that are much longer and contain more detail than scientific papers. There are three main types of academic essay conclusions.

Summarizing conclusion

The most typical conclusion at the end of an analytical/explanatory/argumentative essay is a summarizing conclusion . This is, as the name suggests, a clear summary of the main points of your topic and thesis. Since you might have gone through a number of different arguments or subtopics in the main part of your essay, you need to remind the reader again what those were, how they fit into each other, and how they helped you develop or corroborate your hypothesis.

For an essay that analyzes how recruiters can hire the best candidates in the shortest time or on “how starving yourself will increase your lifespan, according to science”, a summary of all the points you discussed might be all you need. Note that you should not exactly repeat what you said earlier, but rather highlight the essential details and present those to your reader in a different way. 

Externalizing conclusion

If you think that just reminding the reader of your main points is not enough, you can opt for an externalizing conclusion instead, that presents new points that were not presented in the paper so far. These new points can be additional facts and information or they can be ideas that are relevant to the topic and have not been mentioned before.

Such a conclusion can stimulate your readers to think about your topic or the implications of your analysis in a whole new way. For example, at the end of a historical analysis of a specific event or development, you could direct your reader’s attention to some current events that were not the topic of your essay but that provide a different context for your findings.

Editorial conclusion

In an editorial conclusion , another common type of conclusion that you will find at the end of papers and essays, you do not add new information but instead present your own experiences or opinions on the topic to round everything up. What makes this type of conclusion interesting is that you can choose to agree or disagree with the information you presented in your paper so far. For example, if you have collected and analyzed information on how a specific diet helps people lose weight, you can nevertheless have your doubts on the sustainability of that diet or its practicability in real life—if such arguments were not included in your original thesis and have therefore not been covered in the main part of your paper, the conclusion section is the place where you can get your opinion across.    

How to Conclude an Empirical Research Paper

An empirical research paper is usually more concise and succinct than an essay, because, if it is written well, it focuses on one specific question, describes the method that was used to answer that one question, describes and explains the results, and guides the reader in a logical way from the introduction to the discussion without going on tangents or digging into not absolutely relevant topics.

Summarize the findings

In a scientific paper, you should include a summary of the findings. Don’t go into great detail here (you will have presented your in-depth  results  and  discussion  already), but do clearly express the answers to the  research questions  you investigated.

Describe your main findings, even if they weren’t necessarily the ones anticipated, and explain the conclusion they led you to. Explain these findings in as few words as possible.

Instead of beginning with “ In conclusion, in this study, we investigated the effect of stress on the brain using fMRI …”, you should try to find a way to incorporate the repetition of the essential (and only the essential) details into the summary of the key points. “ The findings of this fMRI study on the effect of stress on the brain suggest that …” or “ While it has been known for a long time that stress has an effect on the brain, the findings of this fMRI study show that, surprisingly… ” would be better ways to start a conclusion. 

You should also not bring up new ideas or present new facts in the conclusion of a research paper, but stick to the background information you have presented earlier, to the findings you have already discussed, and the limitations and implications you have already described. The one thing you can add here is a practical recommendation that you haven’t clearly stated before—but even that one needs to follow logically from everything you have already discussed in the discussion section.

Discuss the implications

After summing up your key arguments or findings, conclude the paper by stating the broader implications of the research , whether in methods , approach, or findings. Express practical or theoretical takeaways from your paper. This often looks like a “call to action” or a final “sales pitch” that puts an exclamation point on your paper.

If your research topic is more theoretical in nature, your closing statement should express the significance of your argument—for example, in proposing a new understanding of a topic or laying the groundwork for future research.

Future research example

Future research into education standards should focus on establishing a more detailed picture of how novel pedagogical approaches impact young people’s ability to absorb new and difficult concepts. Moreover, observational studies are needed to gain more insight into how specific teaching models affect the retention of relationships and facts—for instance, how inquiry-based learning and its emphasis on lateral thinking can be used as a jumping-off point for more holistic classroom approaches.

Research Conclusion Example and Outline

Let’s revisit the study on the effect of stress on the brain we mentioned before and see what the common structure for a conclusion paragraph looks like, in three steps. Following these simple steps will make it easy for you to wrap everything up in one short paragraph that contains all the essential information: 

One: Short summary of what you did, but integrated into the summary of your findings:

While it has been known for a long time that stress has an effect on the brain, the findings of this fMRI study in 25 university students going through mid-term exams show that, surprisingly, one’s attitude to the experienced stress significantly modulates the brain’s response to it. 

Note that you don’t need to repeat any methodological or technical details here—the reader has been presented with all of these before, they have read your results section and the discussion of your results, and even (hopefully!) a discussion of the limitations and strengths of your paper. The only thing you need to remind them of here is the essential outcome of your work. 

Two: Add implications, and don’t forget to specify who this might be relevant for: 

Students could be considered a specific subsample of the general population, but earlier research shows that the effect that exam stress has on their physical and mental health is comparable to the effects of other types of stress on individuals of other ages and occupations. Further research into practical ways of modulating not only one’s mental stress response but potentially also one’s brain activity (e.g., via neurofeedback training) are warranted.

This is a “research implication”, and it is nicely combined with a mention of a potential limitation of the study (the student sample) that turns out not to be a limitation after all (because earlier research suggests we can generalize to other populations). If there already is a lot of research on neurofeedback for stress control, by the way, then this should have been discussed in your discussion section earlier and you wouldn’t say such studies are “warranted” here but rather specify how your findings could inspire specific future experiments or how they should be implemented in existing applications. 

Three: The most important thing is that your conclusion paragraph accurately reflects the content of your paper. Compare it to your research paper title , your research paper abstract , and to your journal submission cover letter , in case you already have one—if these do not all tell the same story, then you need to go back to your paper, start again from the introduction section, and find out where you lost the logical thread. As always, consistency is key.    

Problems to Avoid When Writing a Conclusion 

• Do not suddenly introduce new information that has never been mentioned before (unless you are writing an essay and opting for an externalizing conclusion, see above). The conclusion section is not where you want to surprise your readers, but the take-home message of what you have already presented.
• Do not simply copy your abstract, the conclusion section of your abstract, or the first sentence of your introduction, and put it at the end of the discussion section. Even if these parts of your paper cover the same points, they should not be identical.
• Do not start the conclusion with “In conclusion”. If it has its own section heading, that is redundant, and if it is the last paragraph of the discussion section, it is inelegant and also not really necessary. The reader expects you to wrap your work up in the last paragraph, so you don’t have to announce that. Just look at the above example to see how to start a conclusion in a natural way.
• Do not forget what your research objectives were and how you initially formulated the statement of the problem in your introduction section. If your story/approach/conclusions changed because of methodological issues or information you were not aware of when you started, then make sure you go back to the beginning and adapt your entire story (not just the ending). 

Consider Receiving Academic Editing Services

When you have arrived at the conclusion of your paper, you might want to head over to Wordvice AI’s AI Writing Assistant to receive a free grammar check for any academic content. 

After drafting, you can also receive English editing and proofreading services , including paper editing services for your journal manuscript. If you need advice on how to write the other parts of your research paper , or on how to make a research paper outline if you are struggling with putting everything you did together, then head over to the Wordvice academic resources pages , where we have a lot more articles and videos for you.

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Writing a Paper: Conclusions

Writing a conclusion.

A conclusion is an important part of the paper; it provides closure for the reader while reminding the reader of the contents and importance of the paper. It accomplishes this by stepping back from the specifics in order to view the bigger picture of the document. In other words, it is reminding the reader of the main argument. For most course papers, it is usually one paragraph that simply and succinctly restates the main ideas and arguments, pulling everything together to help clarify the thesis of the paper. A conclusion does not introduce new ideas; instead, it should clarify the intent and importance of the paper. It can also suggest possible future research on the topic.

An Easy Checklist for Writing a Conclusion

It is important to remind the reader of the thesis of the paper so he is reminded of the argument and solutions you proposed.

Think of the main points as puzzle pieces, and the conclusion is where they all fit together to create a bigger picture. The reader should walk away with the bigger picture in mind.

Make sure that the paper places its findings in the context of real social change.

Make sure the reader has a distinct sense that the paper has come to an end. It is important to not leave the reader hanging. (You don’t want her to have flip-the-page syndrome, where the reader turns the page, expecting the paper to continue. The paper should naturally come to an end.)

No new ideas should be introduced in the conclusion. It is simply a review of the material that is already present in the paper. The only new idea would be the suggesting of a direction for future research.

Conclusion Example

As addressed in my analysis of recent research, the advantages of a later starting time for high school students significantly outweigh the disadvantages. A later starting time would allow teens more time to sleep--something that is important for their physical and mental health--and ultimately improve their academic performance and behavior. The added transportation costs that result from this change can be absorbed through energy savings. The beneficial effects on the students’ academic performance and behavior validate this decision, but its effect on student motivation is still unknown. I would encourage an in-depth look at the reactions of students to such a change. This sort of study would help determine the actual effects of a later start time on the time management and sleep habits of students.

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Conclusions

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Conclusions wrap up what you have been discussing in your paper. After moving from general to specific information in the introduction and body paragraphs, your conclusion should begin pulling back into more general information that restates the main points of your argument. Conclusions may also call for action or overview future possible research. The following outline may help you conclude your paper:

In a general way,

• Restate your topic and why it is important,
• Restate your thesis/claim,
• Address opposing viewpoints and explain why readers should align with your position,
• Call for action or overview future research possibilities.

Remember that once you accomplish these tasks, unless otherwise directed by your instructor, you are finished. Done. Complete. Don't try to bring in new points or end with a whiz bang(!) conclusion or try to solve world hunger in the final sentence of your conclusion. Simplicity is best for a clear, convincing message.

The preacher's maxim is one of the most effective formulas to follow for argument papers:

Tell what you're going to tell them (introduction).

Tell them (body).

Tell them what you told them (conclusion).

Organizing Academic Research Papers: 9. The Conclusion

• Purpose of Guide
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• Glossary of Research Terms
• Narrowing a Topic Idea
• Broadening a Topic Idea
• Extending the Timeliness of a Topic Idea
• Academic Writing Style
• Choosing a Title
• Making an Outline
• Paragraph Development
• Executive Summary
• Background Information
• The Research Problem/Question
• Theoretical Framework
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• Evaluating Sources
• Primary Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Tertiary Sources
• What Is Scholarly vs. Popular?
• Qualitative Methods
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• Using Non-Textual Elements
• Limitations of the Study
• Common Grammar Mistakes
• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Footnotes or Endnotes?
• Further Readings
• Annotated Bibliography
• Dealing with Nervousness
• Using Visual Aids
• Grading Someone Else's Paper
• How to Manage Group Projects
• Multiple Book Review Essay
• Reviewing Collected Essays
• About Informed Consent
• Writing Field Notes
• Writing a Policy Memo
• Writing a Research Proposal
• Acknowledgements

The conclusion is intended to help the reader understand why your research should matter to them after they have finished reading the paper. A conclusion is not merely a summary of your points or a re-statement of your research problem but a synthesis of key points. For most essays, one well-developed paragraph is sufficient for a conclusion, although in some cases, a two-or-three paragraph conclusion may be required.

Importance of a Good Conclusion

A well-written conclusion provides you with several important opportunities to demonstrate your overall understanding of the research problem to the reader. These include:

• Presenting the last word on the issues you raised in your paper . Just as the introduction gives a first impression to your reader, the conclusion offers a chance to leave a lasting impression. Do this, for example, by highlighting key points in your analysis or findings.
• Summarizing your thoughts and conveying the larger implications of your study . The conclusion is an opportunity to succinctly answer the "so what?" question by placing the study within the context of past research about the topic you've investigated.
• Demonstrating the importance of your ideas . Don't be shy. The conclusion offers you a chance to elaborate on the significance of your findings.
• Introducing possible new or expanded ways of thinking about the research problem . This does not refer to introducing new information [which should be avoided], but to offer new insight and creative approaches for framing/contextualizing the research problem based on the results of your study.

Conclusions . The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Kretchmer, Paul. Twelve Steps to Writing an Effective Conclusion . San Francisco Edit, 2003-2008.

Structure and Writing Style

https://writing.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/535/2018/07/conclusions_uwmadison_writingcenter_aug2012.pdf I.  General Rules

When writing the conclusion to your paper, follow these general rules:

• State your conclusions in clear, simple language.
• Do not simply reiterate your results or the discussion.
• Indicate opportunities for future research, as long as you haven't already done so in the discussion section of your paper.

The function of your paper's conclusion is to restate the main argument . It reminds the reader of the strengths of your main argument(s) and reiterates the most important evidence supporting those argument(s). Make sure, however, that your conclusion is not simply a repetitive summary of the findings because this reduces the impact of the argument(s) you have developed in your essay.

Consider the following points to help ensure your conclusion is appropriate:

• If the argument or point of your paper is complex, you may need to summarize the argument for your reader.
• If, prior to your conclusion, you have not yet explained the significance of your findings or if you are proceeding inductively, use the end of your paper to describe your main points and explain their significance.
• Move from a detailed to a general level of consideration that returns the topic to the context provided by the introduction or within a new context that emerges from the data.

The conclusion also provides a place for you to persuasively and succinctly restate your research problem, given that the reader has now been presented with all the information about the topic . Depending on the discipline you are writing in, the concluding paragraph may contain your reflections on the evidence presented, or on the essay's central research problem. However, the nature of being introspective about the research you have done will depend on the topic and whether your professor wants you to express your observations in this way.

NOTE : Don't delve into idle speculation. Being introspective means looking within yourself as an author to try and understand an issue more deeply not to guess at possible outcomes.

II.  Developing a Compelling Conclusion

Strategies to help you move beyond merely summarizing the key points of your research paper may include any of the following.

• If your essay deals with a contemporary problem, warn readers of the possible consequences of not attending to the problem.
• Recommend a specific course or courses of action.
• Cite a relevant quotation or expert opinion to lend authority to the conclusion you have reached [a good place to look is research from your literature review].
• Restate a key statistic, fact, or visual image to drive home the ultimate point of your paper.
• If your discipline encourages personal reflection, illustrate your concluding point with a relevant narrative drawn from your own life experiences.
• Return to an anecdote, an example, or a quotation that you introduced in your introduction, but add further insight that is derived from the findings of your study; use your interpretation of results to reframe it in new ways.
• Provide a "take-home" message in the form of a strong, succient statement that you want the reader to remember about your study.

III. Problems to Avoid Failure to be concise The conclusion section should be concise and to the point. Conclusions that are too long often have unnecessary detail. The conclusion section is not the place for details about your methodology or results. Although you should give a summary of what was learned from your research, this summary should be relatively brief, since the emphasis in the conclusion is on the implications, evaluations, insights, etc. that you make. Failure to comment on larger, more significant issues In the introduction, your task was to move from general [the field of study] to specific [your research problem]. However, in the conclusion, your task is to move from specific [your research problem] back to general [your field, i.e., how your research contributes new understanding or fills an important gap in the literature]. In other words, the conclusion is where you place your research within a larger context. Failure to reveal problems and negative results Negative aspects of the research process should never be ignored. Problems, drawbacks, and challenges encountered during your study should be included as a way of qualifying your overall conclusions. If you encountered negative results [findings that are validated outside the research context in which they were generated], you must report them in the results section of your paper. In the conclusion, use the negative results as an opportunity to explain how they provide information on which future research can be based. Failure to provide a clear summary of what was learned In order to be able to discuss how your research fits back into your field of study [and possibly the world at large], you need to summarize it briefly and directly. Often this element of your conclusion is only a few sentences long. Failure to match the objectives of your research Often research objectives change while the research is being carried out. This is not a problem unless you forget to go back and refine your original objectives in your introduction, as these changes emerge they must be documented so that they accurately reflect what you were trying to accomplish in your research [not what you thought you might accomplish when you began].

Resist the urge to apologize If you've immersed yourself in studying the research problem, you now know a good deal about it, perhaps even more than your professor! Nevertheless, by the time you have finished writing, you may be having some doubts about what you have produced. Repress those doubts!  Don't undermine your authority by saying something like, "This is just one approach to examining this problem; there may be other, much better approaches...."

Concluding Paragraphs. College Writing Center at Meramec. St. Louis Community College; Conclusions . The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Conclusions . The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Freedman, Leora  and Jerry Plotnick. Introductions and Conclusions . The Lab Report. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Leibensperger, Summer. Draft Your Conclusion. Academic Center, the University of Houston-Victoria, 2003; Make Your Last Words Count . The Writer’s Handbook. Writing Center. University of Wisconsin, Madison; Tips for Writing a Good Conclusion . Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Kretchmer, Paul. Twelve Steps to Writing an Effective Conclusion . San Francisco Edit, 2003-2008; Writing Conclusions . Writing Tutorial Services, Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. Indiana University; Writing: Considering Structure and Organization . Institute for Writing Rhetoric. Dartmouth College.

Writing Tip

Don't Belabor the Obvious!

Avoid phrases like "in conclusion...," "in summary...," or "in closing...." These phrases can be useful, even welcome, in oral presentations. But readers can see by the tell-tale section heading and number of pages remaining to read, when an essay is about to end. You'll irritate your readers if you belabor the obvious.

Another Writing Tip

New Insight, Not New Information!

Don't surprise the reader with new information in your Conclusion that was never referenced anywhere else in the paper. If you have new information to present, add it to the Discussion or other appropriate section of the paper.  Note that, although no actual new information is introduced, the conclusion is where you offer your most "original" contributions in the paper; it's where you describe the value of your research, demonstrate your understanding of the material that you’ve presented, and locate your findings within the larger context of scholarship on the topic.

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Writing a research paper is tedious, and after all that work, you’d think the conclusion would be the easy part. In reality, this is often one of the most difficult sections of a research paper to write, since you have to neatly tie up pages and pages of research in a short amount of time.

To help you with this, we’ve put together some instructions and tips on how to write a research paper conclusion. We’ll also talk about what conclusions are, why they’re important, and different ways you can format them.

Key Takeaways

Research paper conclusions serve to close the argument the introduction opened and restate the main points of the research paper.

There are three research paper conclusion formats: summarization, reflective, and projective.

Your research paper conclusion should be concise, straightforward, and accurate.

How To Write A Research Paper Conclusion

6 tips for writing a research paper conclusion, different formats of research paper conclusions, what is the conclusion of a research paper, why is writing a conclusion important for a research paper, research paper conclusion faq.

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Many students understand that the conclusion is a crucial part of their research paper, but they don’t know how to go about writing one.

Follow the steps below for how to write a research paper conclusion.

Open With The Research Topic. To begin a conclusion paragraph, use the first sentence to reiterate the comprehensive subject matter that your paper covered. Since this is just a sentence-long retelling of your research topic and why it’s important, it doesn’t have to be specific, but it does need clarity.

Dragonflies are a magnificently complex insect whose advanced physical mechanics and vast species differences make them a notable study in the scientific community.

Focus On Your Specific Thesis. Every research paper focuses on targetted intricacies within a larger topic. Now that the more extensive topic of the research paper has been mentioned, the next sentence or two highlights the specific thesis presented.

Don’t merely copy and paste the introduction of your thesis from the first paragraph. Restate it in different words that illicit a more in-depth understanding from the reader .

The overall characteristics found only within the Odonata family unites the dragonfly under a singular title. All species of dragonfly faced the same path towards the modern structure known today, and therefore, they are all similar in one way or another. However, there are also significant differences apparent to the naked eye between a species that shares so much of the same structure.

Summarize And Connect Main Points. Throughout a research paper, the writer presents points to support the initial thesis claim. Very briefly summarize and tie together these points in a way that supports your thesis. This is the place to restate your research findings.

By examining the striped meadowhawk and migrant hawker dragonflies, it is shown that habitat governs many aspects pertaining to that specific species’ lifestyle. It is also proven that color and patterns perceived on this insect serve a greater purpose of individualizing and distinguishing between these two species.

Bring It All Together. It sounds redundant to say you need to conclude your conclusion, but that’s the final step. You’ve done the mini recap of your research paper through the beginning sentences of your essay. Close the conclusion by making a final encouragement for an action, idea, or fact.

The dragonfly is a unique insect with uniting factors and specialization. However, the most attributed aspect to this insect as a whole is the enormity of their differences. The evolved genetic features attributed to various species of dragonflies both individualize them and apply unification to the insect as a whole.

Consider What Conclusion Format To Use Carefully. The way you structure a conclusion has a massive effect on how impactful it will be to a reader.

Some types of writing can work well with a variety of conclusion formats, but others will confuse a paper’s message. For example, using a reflective style conclusion on a scientific research paper comes across as too opinion-based for a topic that’s shrouded in measurable fact.

Don’t Make It Too Complex. It’s best to use plain language when summarizing the information presented in a research paper or making a claim. Many students are tempted to use impressive wording and complex writing in a research paper conclusion to present themselves as experts in the subject , but it only gives the reader a headache.

Conclusions Should Be Concise . Research papers give the writer pages of leeway to make all the drawn-out points that they need, but conclusions don’t offer as much room. An essay’s conclusion needs to be short by definition because it’s merely a last takeaway for the reader. A research paper conclusion is a final paragraph, not the entire page .

Double Check Your Information. There’s nothing worse for a research paper’s validity than confidently making a claim in the conclusion that turns out to be false. It’s fundamental that all the facts and information your detail in a research paper are backed up with credible sources listed neatly on the works cited page.

Empathize With The Reader. Whether you’re submitting a research paper for an introductory university class or publishing a scholarly journal, you still need to keep the reader in mind when writing a conclusion. Think about who you’re communicating with through your research paper and what you’re hoping to accomplish with it.

Do Research . One way to fix the problem if you’re unsure of what makes an essay conclusion compelling is researching the topic. Reading articles (like this one) is helpful because they give you a clear demonstration of how to create a conclusion, but applying this structure to your own work can be difficult. A case of easier said than done.

Based on the goal or subject of your research paper, the structure of your conclusion changes. Pick a type of conclusion that will strengthen the point of your essay. Below are examples of different formats to use when writing research paper conclusions.

Summarization. The summarization conclusion is most commonly used for research papers that are presenting a series of concrete facts.

It’s the form of conclusion that most people are familiar with. Using the summary technique requires a succinct compiling of the most critical points you’ve made in an essay.

Summarization Conclusion Formatting Works Best For:

Solution-Based Research

Persuasive Writing

History and Science Studies

Structuring An Argument

Reflective. A conclusion that uses a reflective structure takes the information outlined in the research paper to arrive at a grander insight about the topic at hand. This type of conclusion is popular when you’re attempting to change the reader’s viewpoint with a paper.

Reflective Conclusion Formatting Works Best For:

Persuasive Essays

English and Political Studies

Projective. When using a projective conclusion, the writer applies their work presented earlier in the thesis to eventual outcomes that can arise. It is called a projective conclusion because it is more results-based than summarizing facts or establishing an overarching lesson.

Projective Conclusion Formatting Works Best For:

Research Paper

Expository Essay

Narrative Works (Sometimes)

The conclusion of a research paper ties together all the prior information you’ve covered. It leaves the reader with a final thought about the research paper and the message it’s trying to convey.

Unlike the body paragraphs of a research paper, which aim at specificity and focus on developing a single concept or piece of information, conclusions are broader. The goal is to gloss over what’s already been stated earlier in the essay to solidify it with the reader.

The conclusion also serves a different purpose than the introduction . An introductory paragraph is for establishing what the reader will be learning more about. It opens the metaphorical door towards understanding a research endeavor or topic. The conclusion closes the argument that the introductory paragraph opens.

Including a conclusion is an important part of writing a research paper because it creates an organized summarization of information and outlines inferences about the subject studied. It provides an additional layer of clarity in a short written work.

Research papers are often lengthy and dull, so it’s easy for a reader’s attention to stray. A conclusion brings the reader back and offers them the most critical takeaways from the paper.

How long should a good conclusion be?

A good conclusion should be one paragraph or three to five sentences long. Your research paper conclusion should be concise, which means you don’t need to take up a whole page for just your conclusion. Instead, try to stick to about one paragraph in length.

What are the general rules in crafting conclusions in your research paper?

The general rules for crafting conclusions for your research paper include:

Choose the right conclusion format.

Keep it simple.

Be concise.

Be accurate.

Keep the reader’s needs (or requirements) in mind.

Remind the reader of your thesis.

Summarize and connect main points.

End with a concluding sentence.

What is a better way to say, “In conclusion”?

A better way to say, “In conclusion,” is “Therefore,” “Finally,” or “Lastly.” Other good words include, “As expressed” or “As a result.” You can also simply launch into your concluding paragraph if a transition isn’t needed.

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Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.

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How to Write a Good Conclusion Paragraph (+30 Examples)

A good conclusion paragraph is the lasting impression you want to leave with your reader.

Here is a quick summary of how to write a good conclusion paragraph:

Write a good conclusion paragraph by summarizing key points, restating your thesis, and providing a final thought or call to action. Ensure it wraps up your main ideas, reinforces your argument, and leaves the reader with something to ponder.

This ultimate guide will walk you through the steps to craft an effective conclusion, along with 30 examples to inspire you.

5 Steps for Writing a Good Conclusion Paragraph

Table of Contents

There are five main steps to writing a good conclusion.

Let’s go through each step

1. Understand the Purpose

The conclusion is your final opportunity to leave an impact.

It should tie together your main ideas, reinforce your message, and give the reader a sense of closure.

Wrap Up Your Main Ideas

The conclusion should succinctly wrap up the main points of your writing. Think of it as a summary that captures the essence of your arguments without going into detailed explanations.

This helps reinforce what you have discussed and ensures that the reader remembers the core message.

Reinforce Your Thesis

Your thesis statement is the foundation of your writing.

In the conclusion, restate it in a new way to reinforce your central argument. This reminds the reader of the purpose of your writing and underscores its significance.

Give a Sense of Closure

A good conclusion gives a sense of closure to the reader. It signals that the discussion has come to an end and that all points have been addressed. This helps the reader feel that the piece is complete and that their time was well-spent.

Leave the Reader with Something to Think About

The best conclusions go beyond merely summarizing the content.

They leave the reader with a final thought or reflection that stays with them. This could be a call to action, a prediction about the future, or a thought-provoking question that encourages further reflection on the topic.

2. Summarize Key Points

Briefly summarize the key points discussed in the body of your text.

Avoid introducing new information. This helps the reader recall the main ideas.

Brief Summary

The summary should be concise and to the point. Highlight the main ideas discussed in your writing without going into detailed explanations. This helps refresh the reader’s memory of your key points.

Avoid New Information

Introducing new information in the conclusion can confuse the reader. The conclusion is not the place to present new arguments or data. Stick to summarizing what has already been discussed.

Recall Main Ideas

Summarizing the key points helps the reader recall the main ideas of your writing. This reinforces the message and ensures that the reader takes away the most important information from your piece.

“In conclusion, adopting sustainable practices, reducing waste, and promoting renewable energy are essential steps towards a greener future.”

3. Restate the Thesis

Restate your thesis in a new way. This reinforces your argument without sounding repetitive.

Restate, Don’t Repeat

Restating the thesis means expressing it in a new way.

Avoid repeating it verbatim.

Instead, rephrase it to reinforce your argument and show that you have successfully argued your point throughout the piece.

Reinforce the Argument

Restating the thesis helps reinforce your central argument. It reminds the reader of the purpose of your writing and underscores its significance.

Provide Closure Restating the thesis in the conclusion gives a sense of closure.

It signals that the discussion has come full circle and that you have addressed your initial argument.

“By implementing these strategies, we can significantly reduce our carbon footprint and protect our planet for future generations.”

4. Provide a Final Thought

Offer a final thought or reflection to leave a lasting impression. This could be a call to action, a prediction, or a thought-provoking question.

Final Thought or Reflection

A final thought or reflection can leave a lasting impression on the reader.

It shows that you are not just summarizing your points but also offering a deeper insight or perspective.

Call to Action

A call to action encourages the reader to take the next step.

It motivates them to act based on the information or arguments presented in your writing.

Prediction or Question

A prediction about the future or a thought-provoking question can engage the reader and encourage further reflection. This leaves the reader with something to think about even after they have finished reading.

“As we move forward, it’s crucial to remember that every small effort counts. Together, we can make a difference.”

5. Use a Call to Action (if applicable)

If your piece is meant to persuade or encourage action, include a call to action. This motivates the reader to take the next step.

Motivate the Reader

A call to action motivates the reader to take the next step.

It encourages them to act based on the information or arguments presented in your writing.

Encourage Action

Including a call to action is especially important in persuasive writing. It encourages the reader to act on the information provided and make a change or take a specific action.

Provide Clear Steps

A good call to action provides clear steps for the reader to follow.

It should be specific and actionable, guiding the reader on what to do next.

“Join us in making a positive change. Start today by reducing your plastic use and spreading awareness about environmental conservation.”

Check out this video about how to write a good conclusion:

How to Write a Good Conclusion for an Essay

Writing a good conclusion for an essay involves summarizing your main points, restating your thesis, and providing a final thought or reflection.

Here’s how:

• Summarize Main Points : Briefly recap the key points discussed in the body of your essay.
• Restate Thesis : Paraphrase your thesis statement to reinforce your argument.
• Final Thought : Offer a final insight, question, or call to action to leave a lasting impression.

This approach ensures your essay feels complete and leaves the reader with a clear understanding of your argument.

How to Write a Good Conclusion for an Argumentative Essay

A strong conclusion for an argumentative essay should not only summarize the main points and restate the thesis but also emphasize the importance of your argument.

Follow these steps:

• Summarize Arguments : Briefly outline the main arguments presented.
• Restate Thesis : Rephrase your thesis to highlight its significance.
• Address Counterarguments : Acknowledge opposing viewpoints and reinforce why your argument is stronger.
• Call to Action : Encourage the reader to take action or reconsider their position.

How to Write a Good Conclusion for a Research Paper

Crafting a good conclusion for a research paper involves summarizing your findings, discussing their implications, and suggesting future research.

Here’s a guide:

• Summarize Findings : Recap the key results of your research.
• Discuss Implications : Explain the significance of your findings and how they contribute to the field.
• Restate Research Question : Reiterate the research question and how your findings address it.
• Suggest Future Research : Propose areas for further investigation.

This format provides a comprehensive and thoughtful conclusion that underscores the importance of your research and its potential impact.

30 Examples of Good Conclusion Paragraphs

Let’s explore some good examples of good conclusions.

Example 1: Environmental Essay

“In conclusion, the preservation of our natural resources is not just a necessity but a responsibility we owe to future generations. By taking small steps today, we can ensure a healthier planet tomorrow.”

Example 2: Technology Article

“As we embrace the advancements in technology, it is vital to remain vigilant about privacy and security. Staying informed and proactive can help us navigate the digital landscape safely.”

Example 3: Health and Wellness Blog

“Ultimately, achieving a balanced lifestyle requires dedication and mindfulness. By prioritizing our well-being, we can lead healthier and more fulfilling lives.”

Example 4: Business Report

“In summary, the market analysis indicates a positive trend for our product. With strategic planning and execution, we can capitalize on these opportunities and drive growth.”

Example 5: Education Essay

“In the end, fostering a love for learning in students is the key to their success. By creating engaging and supportive educational environments, we can inspire the next generation of leaders.”

Example 6: Travel Blog

“To conclude, exploring new destinations enriches our lives and broadens our perspectives. Embrace the adventure and discover the beauty of our world.”

Example 7: Personal Development Article

“In the final analysis, personal growth is a lifelong journey. Embrace challenges, learn from experiences, and continue striving to become the best version of yourself.”

Example 8: Marketing Case Study

“In closing, the data clearly shows that targeted marketing strategies significantly improve customer engagement and sales. By refining our approach, we can achieve even greater success.”

Example 9: Historical Analysis

“In conclusion, the events of the past continue to shape our present and future. Understanding history is essential to making informed decisions and avoiding past mistakes.”

Example 10: Scientific Research Paper

“Ultimately, the findings of this study contribute to our understanding of the subject and open the door for further research. Continued exploration in this field is vital for advancing knowledge.”

Example 11: Political Commentary

“In the end, civic engagement is crucial for a functioning democracy. Stay informed, participate in discussions, and exercise your right to vote.”

Example 12: Fashion Blog

“To wrap up, fashion is a powerful form of self-expression. Embrace your unique style and let your wardrobe reflect your personality.”

Example 13: Food Blog

“In conclusion, cooking at home not only saves money but also allows you to experiment with flavors and ingredients. Start your culinary journey today and discover the joys of homemade meals.”

Example 14: Sports Article

“Ultimately, teamwork and perseverance are the foundations of success in sports. Keep pushing your limits and strive for excellence on and off the field.”

Example 15: Literature Analysis

“In summary, the themes explored in this novel resonate with readers and offer valuable insights into the human condition. Its timeless message continues to inspire and provoke thought.”

Example 16: Parenting Blog

“In the end, raising children requires patience, love, and commitment. Cherish the moments, and remember that every effort you make shapes their future.”

Example 17: Finance Article

“To conclude, financial planning is essential for securing your future. Start today by setting clear goals and creating a budget that aligns with your aspirations.”

Example 18: Career Advice Blog

“In conclusion, building a successful career takes time and dedication. Stay focused, seek opportunities for growth, and never stop learning.”

Example 19: Fitness Blog

“Ultimately, regular exercise and a balanced diet are key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Stay motivated, and remember that every step counts towards your fitness goals.”

Example 20: DIY Blog

“In summary, DIY projects are a rewarding way to personalize your space and learn new skills. Get creative and start your next project today.”

Example 21: Relationship Advice

“In the end, strong relationships are built on communication, trust, and mutual respect. Nurture your connections and strive for harmony in your interactions.”

Example 22: Pet Care Blog

“To wrap up, responsible pet ownership involves understanding your pet’s needs and providing them with a loving home. Invest in their well-being, and they’ll reward you with unconditional love.”

Example 23: Environmental Science Paper

“In conclusion, addressing climate change requires global cooperation and immediate action. Every effort counts, and together we can create a sustainable future.”

Example 24: Technology Review

“Ultimately, this gadget offers impressive features that enhance convenience and efficiency. Consider it for your next tech upgrade.”

Example 25: Psychology Article

“In summary, understanding human behavior is crucial for improving mental health and well-being. Continue exploring this fascinating field for more insights.”

Example 26: Gardening Blog

“In the end, gardening is a therapeutic and rewarding hobby that connects us with nature. Start your garden today and enjoy the benefits of fresh produce and beautiful blooms.”

Example 27: Home Improvement Article

“To conclude, home improvement projects can significantly enhance your living space and increase property value. Plan carefully and enjoy the transformation.”

Example 28: Social Media Marketing

“In conclusion, effective social media marketing requires consistency, creativity, and engagement. Develop a strategy that resonates with your audience and watch your brand grow.”

Example 29: Automotive Review

“Ultimately, this vehicle combines performance, style, and safety. Take it for a test drive and experience its capabilities firsthand.”

Example 30: Music Blog

“In summary, music has the power to evoke emotions and bring people together. Explore different genres and find the soundtrack to your life.”

Tips for Writing a Strong Conclusion

Here are some simple but good tips for writing a powerful conclusion:

• Keep it Concise – A good conclusion should be short and to the point. Avoid unnecessary details and focus on wrapping up your main ideas.
• Use Clear Language – Ensure your language is clear and easy to understand. Avoid jargon and complex sentences.
• Be Consistent – Maintain the same tone and style as the rest of your text. Consistency helps create a seamless reading experience.
• End on a Positive Note – Whenever possible, end with a positive or uplifting message. This leaves the reader with a good impression.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

There are some common mistakes that many writers make when crafting their conclusions.

• Introducing New Information – Don’t introduce new ideas or arguments in the conclusion. This can confuse the reader and dilute your main points.
• Being Vague – Avoid vague statements that don’t add value. Be specific and clear in your summary.
• Repetitiveness – Don’t repeat the same points over and over. Restate your thesis and key points in a new way.
• Ignoring the Thesis – Make sure to tie your conclusion back to your thesis. This reinforces your argument and gives a sense of closure.

Final Thoughts: How to Write a Good Conclusion Paragraph

Writing a good conclusion paragraph is essential for creating a cohesive and impactful piece of writing.

By summarizing key points, restating the thesis, providing a final thought, and using a call to action, you can craft a strong conclusion that leaves a lasting impression.

Use the 30 examples provided to inspire your own writing and ensure your conclusions are always effective and engaging.

Read This Next:

• How to Write an Introduction Paragraph [50+ Examples]
• How to Write a Paragraph [Ultimate Guide + Examples]
• Types of Evidence in Writing [Ultimate Guide + Examples]
• Narrative Writing Graphic Organizer [Guide + Free Templates]
• How to Write a Hook (40 Good Examples)

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Characterizing Community Forests in the United States

Current affiliation: University of North Carolina Wilmington, Environmental Science, Wilmington, NC, USA

Current affiliation: US Department of the Interior, Office of Collaborative Action and Dispute Resolution Washington, DC, USA

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Reem Hajjar, Kathleen McGinley, Susan Charnley, Gregory E Frey, Meredith Hovis, Frederick W Cubbage, John Schelhas, Kailey Kornhauser, Characterizing Community Forests in the United States, Journal of Forestry , Volume 122, Issue 3, May 2024, Pages 273–284, https://doi.org/10.1093/jofore/fvad054

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Research on community forests (CFs), primarily governed and managed by local forest users in the United States, is limited, despite their growth in numbers over the past decade. We conducted a survey to inventory CFs in the United States and better understand their ownership and governance structures, management objectives, benefits, and financing. The ninety-eight CFs in our inventory are on private, public, and tribal lands. They had various ways of soliciting input from, or sharing decision-making authority with, local groups, organizations, and citizens. Recreation and environmental services were the most important management goals, but timber production occurred on more than two-thirds of CFs, contributing to income on many CFs, along with a diversity of other income sources to fund operations. We discuss the difficulties in creating a comprehensive CF inventory and typology given the diversity of models that exist, reflecting local social and environmental conditions and the bottom-up nature of community forestry in the United States.

Study Implications: Despite their small footprint in the United States, community forests are a rapidly developing model of forest ownership, governance, and management that helps protect forestlands and open space and demonstrates how market and nonmarket forest goods and services can be produced for broad and enduring community benefits. This study inventories and characterizes community forests in the United States to increase understanding of this model, its prevalence, and its potential. It provides a baseline of information that serves as a foundation for further exploration and research on the impacts and contributions of community forests.

Over the past few decades, many countries have increasingly promoted community forests (CFs) as a way to conserve forests, enhance rural livelihoods, and recognize the traditional and customary rights of local forest users to access, use, and manage forests ( Hajjar et al. 2021 ; Lund et al. 2018 ). CFs are delineated forest areas where community members have access to natural resources, are engaged in their governance, and receive indirect and direct benefits from their management ( Charnley and Poe 2007 ; McDermott and Schreckenberg 2009 ). Although CFs have existed in many forms across the globe for centuries, these more recent efforts are typically formal, government-sanctioned, and often government-sponsored. A total 14% of the world’s forests, and 28% of forests in low- and middle-income countries, are currently owned or managed by Indigenous peoples and local communities ( Rights and Resources Initiative 2018 ). Internationally, CF initiatives span a broad range of tenure regimes, institutional arrangements, relationships between communities and higher levels of government, activities, and outcomes that have evolved in line with local contexts, conditions, needs, and goals ( Charnley and Poe 2007 ; Hajjar and Molnar 2016 ).

In the United States, CFs have also existed in diverse forms for centuries ( Baker and Kusel 2003 ; McCullough 1995 ), although as elsewhere, formally designated community forests have been increasing in number since the 1990s. This relatively recent trend is likely driven by several factors. First, vertically integrated forest products companies nationwide have been divesting of their industrial timberlands since the late 1980s for economic reasons ( Zhang 2021 ), causing a large-scale shift in timberland ownership from industrial to institutional investors ( Zhang 2021 ). To prevent residential development, maintain access to local forests, conserve forest resources, and keep working forests working to provide economic opportunities for local residents, initiatives to acquire industrial timberland and manage it as CFs have proliferated ( Belsky 2008 ). Second, private family forest owners are aging; the average age of the primary decision-maker over family forestlands is 65 and, for about 20% of these ownerships, 75 or older ( Butler et al. 2021 ). Keeping their family forestland intact for future generations is a top concern for family forest owners ( Butler et al. 2021 ). If their descendants are uninterested or unable to keep this land in the family, community groups or municipalities may wish to acquire it as a CF to prevent its subdivision and fragmentation and provide community benefits.

Third, Indigenous peoples in the United States have regained greater control over ancestral lands, including forestlands, both on and off tribal trust lands over the past several decades ( McGinley et al. 2022 ). Some tribes have acquired forestland through fee simple purchase, including with funding designated for CF creation, and established CFs on those lands ( McGinley et al. 2022 ). Fourth, the 1990s saw a dramatic increase in citizen participation in decision-making about the management of public forestlands ( Baker and Kusel 2003 ; Charnley and Poe 2007 ). This trend has persisted, with community-based organizations, community members, forest collaborative groups, and other stakeholders playing a greater role in management decision-making and collaborative forest stewardship on federal lands ( Davis et al. 2020 ). In some cases, these arrangements may exhibit the characteristics of a CF.

Simultaneously, several programs providing funding for land acquisition to create CFs have arisen in the past two decades ( McGinley et al. 2022 ). Access to funding along with the emergence of supportive policies, organizations providing technical assistance, and practitioner networks have fostered a more favorable environment for CF creation since the 2000s ( Frey et al. forthcoming ). These trends have played out somewhat differently in different locations, but together they have contributed to a nationwide rise in CFs in the United States.

Unlike many other countries around the world with communal property systems, CFs in the United States do not exist as a distinct land tenure or ownership class. CFs have been established on a variety of public, private, and tribal lands and have diverse land tenure arrangements ( McGinley et al. 2022 ). Furthermore, there is no universally accepted definition of a CF in the United States ( Frey et al. forthcoming ). These two facts make studying CFs in the United States, as a distinct form of forest tenure, management, and governance, challenging. Literature on US CFs, most of it published since the 1990s, has primarily been descriptive in nature, relying on limited numbers of case studies to elaborate on the various motivations for creating CFs and the institutional and political context that pushed them forward ( Belsky 2015 ; McCarthy 2006 ); development of mechanisms and institutional arrangements for governance ( Abrams 2023 ; Abrams et al. 2015 ; Belsky and Barton 2018 ); and their potential benefits ( Christoffersen et al. 2008 ; Lyman et al. 2014 ). Belsky (2008) proposed a typology of CFs defined by who owns the CF—Indigenous groups, towns or municipalities, or community-based conservation organizations. A key message of the scientific literature is that a vast diversity of CFs exists in the United States, reflecting the diverse social, economic, and ecological contexts in which they occur.

To our knowledge, no prior research has attempted to document or characterize the full suite of CFs in the United States. Thus, the goals of this paper are to (1) identify, inventory, and characterize CFs in the United States; (2) enhance understanding of their ownership and governance structures, management objectives, and sources of income; (3) extend the discussion of the variability in forms of CFs and build on previous work to refine a CF typology; and (4) problematize how we recognize CFs in the United States (i.e., what is included, what is not, and why).

Defining CFs 1

A common but broad premise of CFs internationally is that place-based communities have some role in determining how local forests are to be managed for community benefit ( Hajjar et al. 2021 ). In the United States, communities associated with CFs are frequently not only place-based but also communities of interest and practice or some combination of these ( McGinley et al. 2022 ), complicating the notion of “community” and “local” (see Brosius et al. [2005 ] for a discussion). For purposes of deciding what to include in this study, we considered the following attributes of CFs, which are prevalent in the literature on US CFs (see Frey et al. forthcoming ): (1) ownership or tenure by a local governmental or nongovernmental organization (NGO) on behalf of the community; (2) communities are substantively involved in forest management and governance; (3) communities have secure rights to access and benefit from the forest; (4) social and economic benefits for local communities are a management priority; and (5) forest conservation values are permanently protected.

Creating a CF Inventory

To catalogue and characterize CFs in the United States, we first undertook an inventory of existing CFs, aiming to be as comprehensive as possible. Given the lack of a consistent definition or model of CFs, we used a hybrid approach to identify them ( Frey et al. forthcoming ). This meant first searching for entities that self-identify their property or initiative as a CF and for those that have participated in programs or policies related to CFs. Then we overlaid a series of inclusion criteria based on the attributes of CFs outlined above. Therefore, to be included in our study, local communities had to have rights of access and use and some form of management responsibility or decision-making authority (beyond consultation) over local forests. Additionally, these forests were managed to promote ecological sustainability and contribute to conservation while creating tangible local community benefits as a management priority.

We began by compiling a list of CFs and related information from a US Endowment for Forestry and Communities study ( Christoffersen et al. 2008 ) and a previous exploratory project ( Hovis et al. 2022 ). We then added to this list, drawing from CF lists provided by organizations that work with and support them, such as the Ford Foundation, the Northwest Community Forest Coalition, the Northern Forest Center, the Trust for Public Lands, the Open Space Institute, and the USDA Forest Service (Forest Service) Community Forest and Open Space Conservation Program. We also used Google Search Engine to identify any additional CFs not already included in our list. Search terms included: state name AND community forest OR community managed forest OR community-based forest OR town forest. We further consulted with various professionals in our networks involved with CFs (e.g., via the Northwest Community Forest Coalition annual meeting) to ensure the comprehensiveness of our list. Finally, we consulted with two project advisory committees that we set up at the start of the funded project under which this research was undertaken: one, a research advisory committee consisting of CF professionals across select government agencies, CF coalitions, and networks; the other, a tribal forestry advisory committee consisting of representatives of tribes with CFs and tribal natural resources networks.

We also used Google Search Engine to record any information on the identified CFs, usually landing on the websites of CF owners or their supporters. This information typically included the group name, forest location, acreage, landowner, governance, management objectives, history, URL, and contact information. Searches and consultations took place between 2019 and 2023, with more CFs identified and added continually as we heard of cases that were missed in our searches or that were being newly created. We examine the limitations of this approach in the Discussion section.

We initially located 136 possible CFs in the United States using these methods. Of these, thirty-two clearly did not meet our criteria, and we were unable to find additional information or contacts for eleven. To the remaining ninety-three CFs that met our inclusion criteria and for which we had contact information, we sent an internet-based survey using Qualtrics. We requested that a CF manager or other person familiar with the CF fill out the survey. The survey included questions about the CF, such as size, forest type, ownership, decision-making, who is involved in day-to-day management, management priorities, rules of access and use, and financing. Although most survey questions were designed to capture objective characteristics of the CF (i.e., size, ownership, etc.), we acknowledge that answers to a question asking about “management priorities” may not reflect the diversity of priorities a community may have for its forests. Rather, we expected that a CF manager responding to the survey would choose priorities that were being explicitly managed for, consistent with their management plan or mission statement.

To increase response rates ( Dillman et al. 2014 ), we followed up by sending reminder emails after 2 and 4 weeks and then through phone calls where phone numbers were available. Following this, for all nonresponses or cases where contact information could not be located, we filled out the survey ourselves to the extent possible using CF websites and other available resources. Not all survey questions had responses readily available from website sources, and so these surveys were not as complete. This resulted in some topic areas having smaller sample sizes, as displayed in the Results section. We also followed this protocol for newly identified CFs throughout the time period of the research (either newly created CFs or CFs discovered through our networks that met our criteria), for a combined total of ninety-eight CFs recorded up to April 2023. Survey responses were tabulated in SPSS, where descriptive statistics (frequencies and crosstabs) were used to show patterns across various CF characteristics.

We refer to three regions in discussing our results based on the Forest Service Resources Planning Act Assessment (RPA) regions: the West, combining the Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain RPA regions, including CFs in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, and Arizona; the North, which includes CFs found in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Michigan, and Wisconsin; and the South, which includes CFs in Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, and Puerto Rico.

We collected data on ninety-eight CFs across the United States, constituting the sample used for this study ( SI Table 1 ). The survey response rate was 87% (eighty-five of ninety-eight); for the remaining thirteen survey nonresponses, we gathered information from internet sources. We expect the number of CFs to continue to grow in the coming years: after closing the survey in April 2023, we learned of at least four additional initiatives that were close to acquiring CF lands and nine that were seeking funds to purchase CF land. We believe that ninety-eight is close to the current total number of self-identifying CFs in the United States but acknowledge that it is likely an undercount of actual CFs that meet our inclusion criteria. We discuss the difficulties in accurately capturing all US CFs in the Discussion section. Rather than thinking of our sample as a complete inventory of all US CFs, we consider it sufficient for characterizing different types of CFs in the United States.

Location, Year Established, and Size

The greatest number of CFs per state were found in West Coast states ( figure 1 ; Washington, fourteen CFs; Oregon, twelve; California, nine); northeastern states (Maine, twelve CFs; Vermont, nine; New Hampshire, eight); and the upper midwestern states of Michigan and Wisconsin (five each). Fewer were located in southern states, with a handful spread across Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Virginia. The earliest recorded CFs in our sample were created in the 1930s and 1940s ( figure 2 ), mostly city and county forests in the northwestern United States (Montesano Community Forest, Hood River County Forest, Ashland Forestlands, Arcata Community Forest), and two town forests that self-describe as CFs in the Northeast (Gorham Town Forest, Mendon Town Forest). Most CFs in our sample were created after 2010 when there was a sharp increase in the number of CFs in all regions. This time period corresponded with new legislative support for CFs in some states (e.g., Washington State’s 2011 Community Forest Trust legislation) and at the federal level (e.g., the Forest Service's 2011 Community Forest Program), which have helped tribes, local governments, and nonprofit organizations acquire land at risk of development to establish CFs.

Location of CFs in our database. In this article, we refer to three regions in discussing our results: the West, which includes CFs found in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, and Arizona; the North, which includes Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Michigan, and Wisconsin; and the South, which includes Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, and Puerto Rico.

Number of CFs in the United States since 1930.

The total area covered by CFs in our inventory is 436,411 acres (ac). Of this total, 87% of CFs were smaller than 5,000 ac ( figure 3 ), and 63% were less than 1,000 ac. By region, median sizes of CFs were: 1,360 ac in the West, 375 ac in the North, and 334 ac in the South. Nine CFs in the West were 5,000 ac or larger, compared to four in the North and none in the South. The majority of CFs less than 1,000 ac (thirty-nine of sixty-one CFs) were located in the North, with over half of those being between 100 and 500 ac (twenty-five of thirty-nine CFs). A total of 76% of reporting CFs said their forests were located on one contiguous parcel and 24% were on multiple unconnected parcels (varying from two to seventeen parcels).

Acreage of CFs across regions.

Ownership, Decision-Making Authority, and Management

As indicated in figure 4 , CFs in our sample were primarily owned by either a local government body (town, city, or county government) or by an NGO (e.g., a community-based organization, land trust, or other nonprofit). In the West, CFs were mostly purchased from private corporate owners (industrial timber companies, timber investment management organizations [TIMOs], or real estate investment trusts). In the North, CF lands were mostly acquired from private family forest owners. Ownership types included CFs of various sizes, although CFs larger than 1,000 ac tended to be held by a government body, whereas the majority of NGO-held CFs were smaller than 1,000 ac ( SI Table 2 ).

Ownership of CFs: (a) current landowner of forestlands designated as CFs and (b) previous landowners from whom the current landowner acquired the CF land. “Joint ownership” in (a) were parcels jointly owned by a local government body and a land trust ( n  = 3), a private utilities firm ( n  = 1), or a university ( n  = 1); a tribe and a conservancy ( n  = 1); and a land trust and private equity firm ( n  = 1). “Other” in (b) were parcels that were pieced together from multiple ownerships.

Land ownership largely corresponded with the entity with ultimate decision-making authority over management, access, and use of the CF ( SI Figure 1 ). Government agencies largely had authority over government-owned CFs, tribes over tribally owned CFs, and NGOs over the land they owned. These entities had various ways of soliciting input from, or sharing decision-making authority with, local groups, organizations, and citizens. In some cases, this was institutionalized through formal joint decision-making processes. For example, there were eleven cases of local government ownership (town, city, or county-owned forests) where decision-making authority was jointly held by both that government body and formal citizen councils or committees established for this purpose. In other cases, although respondents did not describe decision-making as “joint,” they involved community members through mechanisms such as advisory committees and boards made up of local citizens, formal community and public consultation processes (mostly for city or town government ownerships), or various events, regular meetings, and other formal and informal mechanisms that sought community input (mostly for NGO ownerships). Local groups and volunteers contributed to day-to-day management of CFs across most ownerships ( SI Figure 2 ). In particular, various recreation-related volunteer groups helped to maintain trail systems. Otherwise, in many cases, forest consultants or forestry professionals from government agencies or NGOs contributed to forest planning and stewardship.

Management Goals and Allowed Activities

Survey respondents were asked to select the top four goals, from a list of options, that the CF was managed for ( figure 5 ). Across the country, the vast majority of CFs stated that recreation was a top management goal (82% of ninety-five reporting CFs). Collectively, conservation-oriented goals (watershed, habitat or open space protection, biodiversity conservation and restoration, and carbon sequestration, totaling 98% of reporting CFs), as well as other nonextractive goals (education, recreation, and cultural heritage protection, totaling 93% of reporting CFs) were much more prominent than extraction-oriented goals (timber production, nontimber forest products (NTFPs) management, agroforestry, and livestock grazing, totaling 47% of reporting CFs). However, timber production was among the top four management goals reported across the sample as a whole.

Primary management goals. Respondents were asked to list top four management goals for their CF.

There were few strong patterns between ownership type and management goals ( SI Table 3 ). Recreation was listed as one of the top management goals in over 75% of cases across CF ownership types, except for tribal (two of five CFs) and private corporate (one of two) owned CFs. All but two CFs owned by local governments listed a conservation-oriented goal. Half of local government-owned (twenty-two of forty-four CFs) and half of NGO-owned CFs (fifteen of thirty-two CFs) listed an extractive-oriented goal. Of the five tribal-owned CFs in our sample, only one listed an extractive-oriented goal (agroforestry) as a primary management goal and only one indicated that timber was produced but not as a primary goal. Local government and NGO-owned CFs reported slightly more often that producing timber was a primary goal (government: nineteen CFs listed it as a primary goal, twelve as a nonprimary goal, and twelve do not produce timber; NGO: thirteen, ten, and six, respectively).

Although timber production occurred on 70% of reporting CFs (sixty-five of ninety-three reporting CFs; figure 6A ), in almost half of those cases (twenty-eight of sixty-five cases) timber production was not one of the top four primary management goals of the CF. Geographically, no CFs in the southern region produced timber as a primary goal. In the North, slightly more CFs produced timber as a primary goal than not as a primary goal (twenty versus sixteen CFs), with only nine reporting no timber production. In the West, seventeen CFs reported producing timber as a primary goal, with ten producing but not primary and ten not producing. Timber production occurred across all acreages ( figure 6B ), including on almost two-thirds of the smallest CFs in our study (<1,000 ac) and on all CFs larger than 5,000 ac (although not always as a primary goal). Similarly, timber production occurred across all ownership types ( figure 6C ), whether as a primary goal or not. Of those engaged in timber production, a private consulting forester was used to oversee timber sales in 43% of fifty-one reporting cases, and internal staff from the CF owner in 26% of cases. Across ownerships, the entity that did the logging was most often a private contracting company (70% of fifty reporting cases). These entities were located at a place within 25 miles of the CF in 52% of forty-two reporting cases, or 26–50 miles in 33% of cases.

Status of timber production across CFs (a) by region, (b) CF size, and (c) ownership type.

Community forests had a variety of rules related to which activities were allowed and whether permits from CF owners were needed if allowed ( SI Figure 3 ). Motorized recreation, camping, and commercial uses of firewood or NTFPs were only allowed in a handful of CFs, often with the requirement of a free or paid permit. Hunting and fishing, in accordance with state regulations, were allowed in more than half of the reporting cases (69% of sixty-five reporting cases and 78% of sixty reporting cases, respectively) and rarely required a permit from CF owners. Personal use of firewood and other NTFPs were allowed in 22% and 40% of sixty-three reporting cases, respectively, although firewood use often required a permit. Altogether, 85% of sixty-six reporting cases allowed some nontimber extractive activities for personal use (either firewood, other NTFPs, hunting, or fishing). Only one CF did not allow recreation and four allowed it only with a free permit. In almost all cases, the same rules applied to the local community as to the general public, except for a few instances where NTFP and firewood use were limited to local community members.

Income Generation and Budgetary Support

A number of CFs across ownerships generated revenue from forest products and services (80% of forty-nine reporting CFs), mostly from timber sales ( figure 7 ; SI Table 4 ), although two-thirds of those reporting revenue generation stated that timber contributed to less than 30% of their budget. The few instances of revenue from hunting leases and payments for ecosystem services (mainly carbon offsets) were mostly reported in CFs owned by private nonprofits, whereas grazing permits or agriculture revenue were only reported in three state or local government-owned CFs ( SI Table 4 ). Timber revenue was reported across all ownerships where timber harvest occurred, except for the two cases of state government ownership, where it is anticipated in the future, once the forest regains commercial value following harvest by the previous owner.

Main sources of revenue generated from forest activities in 48 reporting CFs by region.

Grants from federal or state governments were the most frequently cited sources of annual budgetary support from 2018 to 2020, the period we asked about (70% of fifty-three reporting CFs; figure 8 ; SI Figure 4 ), although almost two-thirds of those CFs stated that grants contributed to less than 30% of their budget. Unsurprisingly, government-owned CFs more often reported (federal, state, or local) government sources for budgetary support. Local government-owned CFs were more reliant on local government funds: 71% of twenty-four reporting local government CFs stated they received funding from local governments (50% of them stating that they received more than 60% of their budget from this source), with only a handful of nongovernment owned CFs reporting support from this source. The NGO-owned CFs reported relying on donations from local community members and fundraiser events much more often than government-owned CFs (in three cases, community donations made up more than 60% of the budget). We did not track sources of funds used for acquiring forestlands in our survey.

Sources of budgetary support 2018–2020 by ownership type. Public ownership includes federal, state, and local governments, and private ownership includes both corporate and nonprofits. Polygons indicate largest differences between private and public ownerships.

As the results indicate, there are a variety of ownership and governance forms that CFs currently take in the United States, a variety of benefits that they provide, and a diversity of income sources that they rely on. As stated above, one goal of this study was to discuss the variability in CFs and develop a robust typology of them. Although Belsky (2008) proposed a CF typology based on ownership types, given the diversity of CFs we encountered in our survey (including within ownership types), we intended to develop a typology based on key characteristics, including ownership, decision-making, operational management, goals, size, and income sources. Two-step cluster analyses and Pearson’s χ 2 tests were performed to assess whether the CFs in our dataset could be empirically grouped according to various combinations of these characteristics. However, limited patterns emerged for creating definitive statistical typologies. Instead, we discuss here some emergent qualitative patterns based on the descriptive statistics reported in the Results section, reflect on the diversity of CFs in the United States, and propose a basic typology for practical purposes. Finally, we discuss the difficulties in creating a comprehensive CF inventory for the United States, given this diversity.

Ownership type emerged as a factor that seemed to shape some key functions of a CF—specifically, decision-making authority and sources of budgetary support. Publicly owned CFs (mostly by local city or town government) more often reported having either a government entity as ultimate decision-making authority or joint authority between local government and citizen councils or other local groups. They were also more reliant on government funding for budgetary support, either through federal or state grants, local government funds, or combinations of these. Privately owned CFs (mostly community-based organizations and local land trusts) more often reported having those same owners make decisions about the CF and less often reported that they formally engage in joint decision-making (although it is difficult to ascertain actual community participation in governance with our survey research design). They also more often reported relying on community donations and fundraiser events than local government funds. All five tribally owned CFs in our dataset were run by tribes themselves, including decision-making authority and operational management. Besides these basic characteristics, however, ownership type seems to have little influence on the size of CFs, management goals, allowed activities, timber production (equally present in public and private CFs), or earned income sources.

We saw moderate regional differences in ownership and size (more government ownership and larger sizes in the West), and who the CF owner bought their forestland from. Ownership history may help explain why the median size of CFs in the West was considerably larger than in the North. The majority of CF lands in the West were purchased from private corporate forest owners, whose holdings are often in the hundreds of thousands of acres ( Sass et al. 2021 ), and from TIMOs in particular, which typically sell land every 10 to 15 years ( Zhang 2021 ). In contrast, the majority of CF lands in the North were purchased from family forest owners; approximately 90% of these ownerships in the United States are under 50 ac ( Butler et al. 2021 ). Yet CFs larger than 5,000 ac occur in both the North and the West.

In both these regions, timber production often occurred across CFs of all sizes and was a primary management goal in roughly equal frequency, although not in our small sample of southern CFs. Timber production was not limited to any particular ownership type, or size class, of CF; rather, the potential to harvest timber as a management goal and source of revenue generation is likely influenced by the nature of the forest assets contained in a particular CF. Those with productive timberlands are presumably more likely than those lacking them to have timber production as a primary management goal. However, it may take years for this goal to be realized if the former owner recently harvested a substantial amount of commercial timber. All CFs across regions emphasized conservation goals, but forest restoration (phrased in the survey as “forest restoration, including wildfire management”) was cited more often in the West. Almost all CFs allowed public access for recreation and many for nontimber extractive activities for personal use. It is likely that some CFs regulate access more than others, but we could not capture this variation in our survey.

The difficulty in creating a typology of CFs is unsurprising given that, by definition, CFs reflect the values and priorities of the communities in which they are situated. Other historical, social, economic, and environmental factors also likely influence their characteristics. Additionally, policies and programs that provide funding opportunities to support CFs and their operations vary by state, influencing their sources of budgetary support. Investigating underlying factors that lead to the diversity in CF models and characteristics is a rich area for further research.

The second phase of our research (a larger project than reported here, aiming to better understand how CFs contribute to conservation and rural prosperity in the United States) uses a case-study sampling approach based on two characteristics that we postulated would be important distinguishing features of a typology: ownership of the CF and whether timber production is a primary management goal of the CF ( Table 1 ). We acknowledge that our survey results do not show that these two characteristics are statistically related to many other factors examined here but reasoned that ownership can influence CF governance and financing mechanisms, and that the role (or lack thereof) of timber production reflects the CF’s management goals, forest resources, financing mechanisms, and benefit streams. We recognize that CFs produce a host of benefits for communities beyond timber production. However, whether a CF prioritizes timber, harvests timber but does not prioritize it, or does not harvest timber emerged as an effective way to distinguish groups of CFs from each other in terms of their management priorities and resulting benefit streams. Otherwise, most CFs shared recreation and conservation-related goals.

A basic typology based on ownership and whether timber is a primary management goal of the CF. Percentages (in parentheses) reflect percentage of eighty-two CFs in our inventory that reported on timber status and ownership.

The diversity of CFs in the United States also reflects the grassroots nature of community forests across the country, making them somewhat unique relative to community forests globally. In many low- and middle-income countries, community forests are forests managed using a top-down model imposed and defined by national CF policies or land reforms and extensive financial and technical support from external donor organizations (e.g., national or international NGOs, multilateral/bilateral aid agencies), with communities receiving some rights and many responsibilities for forest management ( Charnley 2023 ; Hajjar et al. 2021 ; Ribot et al. 2006 ). In contrast, in the United States, CF establishment is typically driven from the bottom up, in most cases through local governments, locally based NGOs, or groups of citizens that come together to protect their local forests. There is no distinct CF tenure category at the national level and few national or state-level policies associated with community forests in the United States. Exceptions include Washington and New York states, where there are legislatively approved funding sources 2 to support CF acquisition and associated policy requirements once established, and the national-level Forest Service Community Forest and Open Space Conservation Program, which has supported the acquisition of numerous CFs in our inventory. This more grassroots approach results in a broad range of ownership, management, governance types, and rights and responsibilities among community members relative to many other countries. It also makes CFs somewhat hard to pinpoint in the United States, posing challenges for efforts to inventory them.

Stemming from this diversity in CFs, a key difficulty we faced in undertaking this inventory was determining what to include. Our approach to including CFs that self-identify as such or had participated in a program or policy related to CFs and met our criteria was naturally limiting. Although this approach was necessary to make an inventory possible, we acknowledge that many more CFs potentially exist than we included here, depending on how a CF is defined. In particular, our inventory captured many town forests and land trust forestlands, some tribal forests, and some state and federal forests. Yet these general ownership categories need further examination.

Town forests are local government-owned forests common across much of New England and the Northeast and in many cases may be considered CFs. They have long been established to generate income from timber and other resources for town budgets or specific projects and public services, to protect water, soil, and wildlife habitat, and to provide recreation and education opportunities for local community members and others ( Baker and Kusel 2003 ; Brown 1941 ; Hovis et al. 2022 ; McCullough 1995 ). The local ownership, management, and benefits of many town forests fulfill most of the criteria of CFs as laid out above. However, the acquisition and designation of a town forest does not guarantee its long-term protection from sale or development, and depending on how much the community participates in governance, it may or may not fulfil the governance criterion of CFs ( McGinley et al. 2022 ).

Similarly, many land trusts own forestlands that could be considered CFs, depending on how these forests are governed and managed, potentially increasing the number and extent of CFs in the United States. However, land trusts may not provide access for local communities or the general public to their forested land, may not provide for local community participation in decision-making, or may not manage their forests specifically for local benefits.

The extent to which tribal forests should be considered CFs is also complicated. Most tribal lands are trust lands, with about 56 million acres of land held in trust for tribes by the federal government (2.3% of US land area; DOI 2023 ). Although these lands are managed for the benefit of individual tribes, forest management activities take place under the direction of forest management and integrated resource management plans developed under the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) guidelines and are subject to BIA approval. Since the passage of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 (Public Law 93-638), an increasing number of tribes have established contracts, known as 638 contracts, with the BIA by which tribal government forestry departments assume management responsibilities for forests on trust lands. These contracts are initiated by a formal request by a tribe to the BIA. By 2011, 112 tribes had taken advantage of these self-determination/self-governance opportunities for forest management, compared to 187 that relied on BIA to manage their lands directly ( Gordon et al. 2013 ). Given this complexity in governance, it is unclear to what extent the trust lands of individual tribes meet the criteria of CFs; such classification should be undertaken by tribes themselves. Tribes can also purchase and own fee lands to which they hold title. The five tribally owned CFs in our sample (they self-identify as such) were purchased this way from private landowners. Further research on tribal forests could explore the variations in ownership, benefits, and management of these forests on trust and fee lands.

Our inventory includes two CFs owned by Washington State and one that occurs on federal lands in California. These cases may appear to contradict our defining attributes of a CF, namely that they have local, long-term ownership or tenure, and that communities have significant decision-making authority. We included the state and federal CFs in our inventory primarily because they self-identified as CFs. However, they also display several attributes of a CF. The two state-owned CFs were acquired through Washington’s 2011 Community Forest Trust Program ( WA DNR, n.d. ). The legislation that created the program stipulated that CFs acquired with program funds (from state budget appropriations) be state-owned, and that state agencies have ultimate decision-making authority. But the legislation also stipulated that state-owned CFs have an advisory committee composed of roughly twenty members representing diverse stakeholder interests to inform those decisions and co-develop forest management plans with citizen input, and that CF management objectives should reflect the values of local communities ( WA Legislature 2011 ).

Regarding the federally owned case, Weaverville CF, the community manages the CF through a 10-year renewable cooperative stewardship agreement between the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (who own and administer different parts of the CF), and the local county resource conservation district (RCD) ( Frost 2014 ; Kelly 2018 ). The RCD is responsible for implementing forest management activities and is governed by a board of directors that oversees CF management, with input from a steering committee composed of ten to fifteen members, including local citizens and agency and RCD staff. Local residents have opportunities to provide input at community meetings that occur once or twice annually. The CF is managed to meet local community needs and priorities, such as wildfire risk reduction, habitat improvement for fish and wildlife, and recreation ( Frost 2014 ; Kelly 2018 ).

The question of whether CFs in the United States that self-identify as such should be considered CFs if they occur on land that is state- or federally owned—with the government retaining ultimate decision-making authority—deserves more attention and is a matter of debate among some practitioners and scholars (see Frey et al. forthcoming ). The international literature recognizes CFs that occur on national government-owned land where communities have concessions to manage the forests for a specified time period (e.g., several CFs in Canada [ Teitelbaum et al. 2006 ], Cameroon [ Piabuo et al. 2018 ], Guatemala [ Taylor 2010 ]); and CFs on national government land that are comanaged by the state and local communities (e.g., Tanzania; Blomley and Ramadhani, 2006 ). This highlights the importance of taking into account the governance criterion in defining CFs in the United States—the level of community involvement in decision-making—just as with town forests and land trusts, and opens the door for potential additional CFs on public lands that might fit the criteria but were not captured here.

The CFs we identified comprise less than 0.1% of all forests in the United States but are a rapidly developing model of forest ownership, governance, and management that provides local community benefits. They take a creative approach to funding and managing local forestlands through public, NGO, or tribal structures, generated income sources, and grant and donor fundraising. They have continued long-standing town and tribal forest ownership and management, helped protect forestlands and open space from imminent development, and offered innovative ways to form explicit community partnerships to manage existing public and private landscapes. As they solidify income sources and management capability, they also might serve as a new model of how market and nonmarket goods and services can be produced on forestlands for broad and enduring community benefits.

We have likely not included all individual CFs in the United States in this study and may have significant undercounts of certain types of CFs. Potential undercounts stem largely from ambiguity over which town, tribal, and private (e.g., land trust-held) forests meet our CF definition and criteria and lingering questions over whether CFs exist on federal lands. Nevertheless, the inventory will increase continually as communities develop proposals for CFs and obtain acquisition funding each year and new research is carried out. To help address this research limitation, we plan to create a centralized, publicly accessible repository that can serve as a living inventory to be updated as more CFs are either acknowledged as such or created. Although incomplete, our current inventory captures a fair representation of the variety of CF models in the United States, reflecting a diversity of ownerships, governance structures, management goals, benefit streams, and more.

This initial research to inventory and describe US CFs provides a sound base for further exploration. Future research could further explore levels of local participation in forest management and governance and when and how these variables would qualify a forest as a CF on public, private, or tribal lands. More in-depth research could also help refine our CF typology to include characteristics hard to ascertain from a survey instrument, such as level of community involvement or capacity and organizational development stage (e.g., incipient or mature). Furthermore, as more NGO-owned and town-owned forests self-identify with the label “community forest,” the consequences, advantages, and disadvantages of using that label will need further examination.

Future research could also compare CF models with traditional (noncommunity based) private and public forest ownerships to highlight their relative differences, advantages, and disadvantages. For example, some CF models share similarities but also have important differences with private family forest ownerships in terms of priority management objectives and timber production ( Butler et al. 2021 ; Shanafelt et al. 2023 ), warranting a systematic comparison of ownership types. Finally, we began this exercise of inventorying CFs in the United States to better understand their contributions to conservation and rural prosperity. Better understanding the ability of communities to capture CF monetary and nonmonetary benefits (and to do so equitably) can help inform the design of policies, programs, and actions to best support CFs.

Supplementary data are available at Journal of Forestry online.

This study was funded in part by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Award number 2021-67023-34426. Partial funding was also provided by the USDA Forest Service’s Southern Research Station, Pacific Northwest Research Station, and International Institute of Tropical Forestry as well as Oregon State University and North Carolina State University.

The authors are developing a publicly accessible repository of community forests. In the meantime, the data used in this study will be made available upon reasonable request.

Abrams , Jesse. 2023 . Forest Policy and Governance in the United States . New York, NY : Routledge .

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Community forests, community forestry, and community-based forestry are terms that are often used interchangeably in the U.S. literature; however, see Frey et al. (forthcoming) and Belsky (2008) for a discussion of important differences.

The Washington State Community Forests Program was established by the state legislature in 2019 to provide grant funding for CF acquisition ( https://rco.wa.gov/grant/community-forests-program/ ). The New York Community Forest Conservation Grant program similarly funds municipal land acquisitions for community forests ( https://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/124345.html#:~:text=and%20contact%20information-,Program%20Overview,Leadership%20and%20Community%20Protection%20Act ).

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Innovative Statistics Project Ideas for Insightful Analysis

Table of contents

• 1.1 AP Statistics Topics for Project
• 1.2 Statistics Project Topics for High School Students
• 1.3 Statistical Survey Topics
• 1.4 Statistical Experiment Ideas
• 1.5 Easy Stats Project Ideas
• 1.6 Business Ideas for Statistics Project
• 1.7 Socio-Economic Easy Statistics Project Ideas
• 1.8 Experiment Ideas for Statistics and Analysis
• 2 Conclusion: Navigating the World of Data Through Statistics

Diving into the world of data, statistics presents a unique blend of challenges and opportunities to uncover patterns, test hypotheses, and make informed decisions. It is a fascinating field that offers many opportunities for exploration and discovery. This article is designed to inspire students, educators, and statistics enthusiasts with various project ideas. We will cover:

• Challenging concepts suitable for advanced placement courses.
• Accessible ideas that are engaging and educational for younger students.
• Ideas for conducting surveys and analyzing the results.
• Topics that explore the application of statistics in business and socio-economic areas.

Each category of topics for the statistics project provides unique insights into the world of statistics, offering opportunities for learning and application. Let’s dive into these ideas and explore the exciting world of statistical analysis.

Top Statistics Project Ideas for High School

Statistics is not only about numbers and data; it’s a unique lens for interpreting the world. Ideal for students, educators, or anyone with a curiosity about statistical analysis, these project ideas offer an interactive, hands-on approach to learning. These projects range from fundamental concepts suitable for beginners to more intricate studies for advanced learners. They are designed to ignite interest in statistics by demonstrating its real-world applications, making it accessible and enjoyable for people of all skill levels.

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AP Statistics Topics for Project

• Analyzing Variance in Climate Data Over Decades.
• The Correlation Between Economic Indicators and Standard of Living.
• Statistical Analysis of Voter Behavior Patterns.
• Probability Models in Sports: Predicting Outcomes.
• The Effectiveness of Different Teaching Methods: A Statistical Study.
• Analysis of Demographic Data in Public Health.
• Time Series Analysis of Stock Market Trends.
• Investigating the Impact of Social Media on Academic Performance.
• Survival Analysis in Clinical Trial Data.
• Regression Analysis on Housing Prices and Market Factors.

Statistics Project Topics for High School Students

• The Mathematics of Personal Finance: Budgeting and Spending Habits.
• Analysis of Class Performance: Test Scores and Study Habits.
• A Statistical Comparison of Local Public Transportation Options.
• Survey on Dietary Habits and Physical Health Among Teenagers.
• Analyzing the Popularity of Various Music Genres in School.
• The Impact of Sleep on Academic Performance: A Statistical Approach.
• Statistical Study on the Use of Technology in Education.
• Comparing Athletic Performance Across Different Sports.
• Trends in Social Media Usage Among High School Students.
• The Effect of Part-Time Jobs on Student Academic Achievement.

Statistical Survey Topics

• Public Opinion on Environmental Conservation Efforts.
• Consumer Preferences in the Fast Food Industry.
• Attitudes Towards Online Learning vs. Traditional Classroom Learning.
• Survey on Workplace Satisfaction and Productivity.
• Public Health: Attitudes Towards Vaccination.
• Trends in Mobile Phone Usage and Preferences.
• Community Response to Local Government Policies.
• Consumer Behavior in Online vs. Offline Shopping.
• Perceptions of Public Safety and Law Enforcement.
• Social Media Influence on Political Opinions.

Statistical Experiment Ideas

• The Effect of Light on Plant Growth.
• Memory Retention: Visual vs. Auditory Information.
• Caffeine Consumption and Cognitive Performance.
• The Impact of Exercise on Stress Levels.
• Testing the Efficacy of Natural vs. Chemical Fertilizers.
• The Influence of Color on Mood and Perception.
• Sleep Patterns: Analyzing Factors Affecting Sleep Quality.
• The Effectiveness of Different Types of Water Filters.
• Analyzing the Impact of Room Temperature on Concentration.
• Testing the Strength of Different Brands of Batteries.

Easy Stats Project Ideas

• Average Daily Screen Time Among Students.
• Analyzing the Most Common Birth Months.
• Favorite School Subjects Among Peers.
• Average Time Spent on Homework Weekly.
• Frequency of Public Transport Usage.
• Comparison of Pet Ownership in the Community.
• Favorite Types of Movies or TV Shows.
• Daily Water Consumption Habits.
• Common Breakfast Choices and Their Nutritional Value.
• Steps Count: A Week-Long Study.

Business Ideas for Statistics Project

• Analyzing Customer Satisfaction in Retail Stores.
• Market Analysis of a New Product Launch.
• Employee Performance Metrics and Organizational Success.
• Sales Data Analysis for E-commerce Websites.
• Impact of Advertising on Consumer Buying Behavior.
• Analysis of Supply Chain Efficiency.
• Customer Loyalty and Retention Strategies.
• Trend Analysis in Social Media Marketing.
• Financial Risk Assessment in Investment Decisions.
• Market Segmentation and Targeting Strategies.

Socio-Economic Easy Statistics Project Ideas

• Income Inequality and Its Impact on Education.
• The Correlation Between Unemployment Rates and Crime Levels.
• Analyzing the Effects of Minimum Wage Changes.
• The Relationship Between Public Health Expenditure and Population Health.
• Demographic Analysis of Housing Affordability.
• The Impact of Immigration on Local Economies.
• Analysis of Gender Pay Gap in Different Industries.
• Statistical Study of Homelessness Causes and Solutions.
• Education Levels and Their Impact on Job Opportunities.
• Analyzing Trends in Government Social Spending.

Experiment Ideas for Statistics and Analysis

• Multivariate Analysis of Global Climate Change Data.
• Time-Series Analysis in Predicting Economic Recessions.
• Logistic Regression in Medical Outcome Prediction.
• Machine Learning Applications in Statistical Modeling.
• Network Analysis in Social Media Data.
• Bayesian Analysis of Scientific Research Data.
• The Use of Factor Analysis in Psychology Studies.
• Spatial Data Analysis in Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
• Predictive Analysis in Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
• Cluster Analysis in Market Research.

Conclusion: Navigating the World of Data Through Statistics

In this exploration of good statistics project ideas, we’ve ventured through various topics, from the straightforward to the complex, from personal finance to global climate change. These ideas are gateways to understanding the world of data and statistics, and platforms for cultivating critical thinking and analytical skills. Whether you’re a high school student, a college student, or a professional, engaging in these projects can deepen your appreciation of how statistics shapes our understanding of the world around us. These projects encourage exploration, inquiry, and a deeper engagement with the world of numbers, trends, and patterns – the essence of statistics.

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R&D investment and corporate total factor productivity under the heterogeneous environmental regulations: evidence from Chinese micro firms

• Original Paper
• Published: 19 May 2024

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• X. Ding   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7213-1948 1 ,
• Y. Zhang 2   na1 ,
• Y. Fu 2   na1 &

Technological innovation activities are the most effective way to achieve corporate leapfrog development. Based on the Porter effect theory, this paper uses panel data on Chinese manufacturing firms from 2015 to 2018 to construct two-way fixed effects and threshold effects models to explore the impact mechanism of research and development (R&D) investment on corporate total factor productivity (CTFP) under heterogeneous environmental regulations. Baseline regression results indicate that R&D investment significantly promotes CTFP. Meanwhile, we also test the robustness of baseline regression results by replacing the dependent variable, shortening the time windows and adding omitted variables. Moreover, heterogeneity analyses indicate that the contribution of R&D investment to CTFP is more significant in the subgroup regressions of non-SOEs, CEO-dual enterprises and non-heavily polluting enterprises. Economic consequence analysis shows that R&D investment contributes to green innovation performance, financial performance and corporate social responsibility performance by increasing CTFP. Additionally, there is heterogeneity in the moderating effects of market-incentivized environmental regulation (MER), command-and-control environmental regulation (CER) and public participation environmental regulation (PER). MER and PER have moderated mediating effects, but CER does not have a moderated mediating effect. Extended analysis shows that according to the threshold effect test findings, two thresholds exist for MER and one threshold each for PER and CER in the relationship between R&D investment and CTFP. Our findings have important implications in that the government should adopt differentiated environmental regulation policies to support companies in actively carrying out innovation activities, thereby promoting high-quality development.

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Acknowledgements

The authors want to thank our editor and reviewers for their valuable comments and advice. The authors also want to acknowledge China Scholarship Council and the contribution of Professor Boris I. Sokolov to this paper.

This research was funded by the China Scholarship Council (Grant Nos. 202008090357, 202210280044, 202210280022, 202008090178).

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Y. Zhang and Y. Fu have contributed to the work equally and should be regarded as co-second authors.

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Faculty of Economics, RUDN University, Miklukho-Maklaya Street, 6, Moscow, Russia, 117198

Institute of Management, Economics and Finance, Kazan Federal University, Butlerova Street, 4, Kazan, Russia, 420010

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Institute of Economics and Management, Belgorod State Technological University, Ulitsa Kostyukova, 46, Belgorod, Russia, 308012

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Xiaowei Ding: conceptualization, investigation, methodology, formal analysis, data curation, writing—original draft, and writing—review and editing and corresponding author. Yaqiong Zhang and Yongguang Fu contributed equally to this work: supervision, visualization, validation, and writing—review and editing. Zhenpeng Xu: conceptualization, supervision, and writing—review and editing. All the authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis, and manuscript.

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Ding, X., Zhang, Y., Fu, Y. et al. R&D investment and corporate total factor productivity under the heterogeneous environmental regulations: evidence from Chinese micro firms. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-024-05710-9

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• Active workplace design: current gaps and future pathways
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• http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9384-5456 Mohammad Javad Koohsari 1 , 2 , 3 ,
• Andrew T Kaczynski 4 ,
• Akitomo Yasunaga 5 ,
• Tomoya Hanibuchi 6 ,
• Tomoki Nakaya 7 ,
• Gavin R McCormack 8 ,
• Koichiro Oka 2
• 1 School of Advanced Science and Technology , Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology , Nomi , Japan
• 2 Faculty of Sport Sciences , Waseda University , Tokorozawa , Japan
• 3 School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences , Deakin University , Geelong , Victoria , Australia
• 4 Arnold School of Public Health , University of South Carolina , Columbia , South Carolina , USA
• 5 Faculty of Health Sciences , Aomori University of Health and Welfare , Aomori , Japan
• 6 Graduate School of Letters , Kyoto University , Kyoto , Japan
• 7 Graduate School of Environmental Studies , Tohoku University , Sendai , Japan
• 8 Department of Community Health Sciences , University of Calgary , Calgary , Alberta , Canada
• Correspondence to Dr Mohammad Javad Koohsari, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Nomi, Japan; koohsari{at}jaist.ac.jp

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• Public health
• Sedentary Behavior
• Health promotion

Introduction

Insufficient physical activity and excessive sitting time among office-based workers have been linked to various health risks and economic consequences. While health promotion interventions are important, the role of workplace design in encouraging active behaviours is increasingly recognised. However, significant gaps exist in knowledge about how workplace design influences these behaviours. This paper identifies the need to investigate the interactive effects of workplace norms and culture and the role of building layouts on workers’ behaviours, as well as the need for more accurate behavioural measures. Bridging these gaps is crucial for designing workplace interventions and promoting active, healthy and productive work environments.

Workplace design: encouraging movement in workplace settings

Existing gaps and future directions, interactive effects of workplace social environments.

Workplace social environments such as norms and culture can significantly influence sedentary behaviours among office-based workers 4 and can affect how workplace design influences workers’ behaviour. Most previous studies have tested the effects of workplace design on employees’ active and sedentary behaviours within Western contexts, 5 leaving a gap in how these relationships vary in other geographical settings with unique workplace norms and cultures. For instance, in a workplace where extended sitting is a cultural norm, employees may still predominantly engage in sedentary behaviour, regardless of having activity-promoting features in their workplace. Conversely, an activity-promoting environment might help mitigate norms towards sitting or even produce multiplicative positive effects in contexts where activity in the workplace is already customary. Conducting studies across varied geographical settings is necessary to identify similarities and differences in the impact of workplace norms and design on workers’ active and sedentary behaviours. Cross-cultural studies can shed light on the generalisability of findings and help develop customised interventions that address specific norms and cultural challenges. Future research can also employ mixed methods to gain a more thorough understanding of the complex interplay between workplace design, norms and culture, and employees’ behaviour. Additionally, the rise of home and hybrid working arrangements indicates that office social norms could extend to home work environments. For example, a culture of regular stretch breaks in the office might encourage similar practices at home, influencing physical activity behaviours remotely. Understanding the detailed relationship between workplace design, norms and employee behaviour is critical for developing targeted contextually relevant interventions that promote active workplace environments.

Precision in tracking workplace behaviours

Accurately measuring employees’ active and sitting behaviours and identifying the ‘locations’ where these behaviours occur is essential to understand their relationships with workplace design attributes. Global positioning systems (GPS) have been commonly used in combination with accelerometer devices to measure and spatially track people’s active and sedentary behaviour in outdoor environments, such as neighbourhoods and cities. 6 Nevertheless, GPS signals have limited accuracy or can be disrupted within indoor environments, resulting in less precise location data.

An indoor positioning system (IPS) can address the limitations of GPS in indoor environments. 7 IPS is a wayfinding technology that uses existing low-cost WiFi and Bluetooth to provide precise locations of individuals inside buildings. The IPS can be integrated with activity-tracking wearable devices, such as accelerometers, pedometers and heart rate monitors, as well as traditional methods like behavioural mapping. This integration allows for the collection of employees’ location data, movement patterns, activity intensities and other biometric data within workplaces. Additionally, the synergy between IPS and wearable devices effectively differentiates between occupational and leisure physical activities in workplaces. This distinction is key to better understanding the health paradox of the different health effects of these two types of physical activities. 8 Furthermore, with the growth of artificial intelligence (AI), there has been a unique opportunity to employ geospatial AI (GeoAI) in workplace environments and health research. GeoAI techniques aim to integrate innovations in spatial sciences with AI, particularly deep learning. 9 The joint application of IPS and GeoAI would enable precise location data of individuals within the workplace while using the power of spatial analysis. GeoAI can analyse workers’ movement patterns derived from IPS in combination with geospatial layers such as spatial layouts, access to common places, and light conditions. For instance, a GeoAI trained by tracking data on people’s movements in various indoor environments would predict people’s movements and derive estimates of the amount of sedentary behaviour of employed people only from planned indoor layout. This analysis allows for identifying hotspots or areas within the workplace where active and sedentary behaviour is prevalent.

Beyond individual design elements: exploring the influence of building layout on workplace behaviour

Most previous studies have primarily examined individual design elements but fail to consider how the overall spatial layout influences movement and behaviour. Building layout encompasses the spatial arrangement of building elements such as walls, doors, windows, and access ways, and plays a fundamental role in defining the functionality of interior spaces. Once a building layout has been established, making substantial alterations to it becomes challenging or, in some cases, impossible. Therefore, designing (and, if feasible, retrofitting) building interiors to promote health is imperative, but it is still unclear which workplace layouts are most supportive of workers’ active behaviours.

The urban design theory of space syntax has the potential to partially address this gap in knowledge. Space syntax uses a set of graph-based estimators to quantify spatial layouts. 10 It offers a framework to investigate the impact of building layout factors, such as workstation arrangement, common area location, and space accessibility, on workers’ movement patterns and behaviours. It goes beyond isolated design elements and considers the spatial configuration as a whole ( figure 1 ). Additionally, more research on ‘how’ people use and perceive their workspaces could complement the space syntax evaluations of building design.

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Space syntax examines building layouts as a whole, using the graph theory: (A)a schematic workplace layout, (B)space syntax axial lines (i.e., longest and fewest lines traversing all spaces) of the layout, and (C)the connectivity of all spaces based on the graph theory.

Conclusions

Future research should investigate the interactive effects of workplace norms and culture on behaviour and conduct cross-cultural studies to identify similarities and differences. Innovative measurement methods can also be employed to accurately measure behaviours and locations where those behaviours occur within workplaces. Additionally, exploring the influence of spatial layout, and using the urban design theory of space syntax, can offer valuable insights into the design of work environments that facilitate workers’ engagement in active behaviours.

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Patient consent for publication.

Not applicable.

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• Sugiyama T ,
• Eakin EE , et al
• Yoshikawa A ,
• Qiu L , et al
• Koohsari MJ ,
• Liao Y , et al
• Waters CN ,
• Chu AHY , et al
• Hadgraft N ,
• Clark BK , et al
• Katapally TR ,
• Pollard B ,
• Engelen L ,
• Held F , et al
• Holtermann A ,
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Contributors MJK conceived the idea and wrote the initial draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed to the writing and assisted with the analysis and interpretation. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript and agree with the order of the presentation of authors.

Funding MJK is supported by the JSPS KAKENHI (grant 23K09701). KO is supported by the JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research program (grant 20H04113).

Competing interests None declared. In particular, none of the authors has a financial interest in the Space Syntax Limited company.

Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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Researching of Fungus Infections Research Paper

Introduction, importance of fungi, general description of fungus infection, recommendations.

Fungi are microbes such as molds and yeasts, as well as the more well-known mushrooms that belong to eukaryotic species. Fungi are unique species separated into their class in biological classification systems. Fungi are classified as eukaryotes because their nuclei are encased in a cell wall, their nuclei are much thicker than bacteria, and their biochemical activities are very similar to those of living organisms. However, unlike human cells, the cell membrane of fungi is virtually always surrounded by a stiff cell wall made of chitin components. A fungus is a photosynthetic species, yet it is unquestionably not a plant because it does not produce pigment. Some fungi, including numerous varieties of mushrooms, can also be consumed. One type of fungus that can be extremely dangerous and result in life-threatening complications is Fusarium . Microbes that are not generally on or in one’s body can occasionally infiltrate it and cause disease. Fungi usually encountered on and inside the human body might proliferate in particular circumstances and cause an illness.

Most of the time, humans and the organisms in their surroundings get along quite well; infections only happen when the immune system weakens, or the pathogenic population reaches exceptionally high concentrations. Most infections go unnoticed, but on rare occasions, the organisms that cause them cause a response in the body, resulting in cases of acute signs and symptoms, a condition known as a fungal infection (Pathakumari et al., 2020). It is easy to spread fungi, and they can be distributed from one person to another. In some situations, contaminated soil surfaces, infected livestock, or infected surfaces can also spread illness-causing fungi to humans. Even though people frequently associate fungi with microbial pathogens and food rot, fungi play numerous vital roles in maintaining human existence.

Fungi participate in the nutrient cycle in ecosystems, and they significantly impact the health of human society. They also play different roles in the environment; for example, as animal pathogens, fungi aid in managing harmful pest populations. These fungi do not infect mammals or plants and are particularly specialized for the insects they assault. Numerous fungi are already available on the market and are now being researched as possible antimicrobial insecticides (Averill et al., 2019). For agricultural soil to be productive, fungus and plant roots must form a symbiotic association. Eighty to ninety percent of plants and grasslands would not exist without the fungus partner in their root systems. Organic agriculture practitioners advertise and sell mycorrhizal fungus composts as soil additives at horticulture supply companies.

Some fungi, such as mushrooms, are also consumed by humans and play a significant role in the human diet. Among the delights are morels, shiitake mushrooms, chanterelles, and truffles. Agaricus campestris , a common meadow mushroom, is used in numerous recipes. They first appear in a natural setting, including the caverns at Roquefort, Spain, where goat’s cheese butter is heaped in order to collect the spores that give the cheese its colored streaks and powerful flavor. These molds give the cheese its distinctive appearance. Humans have been practicing brewing for thousands of years, using grains to make beer and fruits to make vinegar. Under anaerobic conditions, wild yeasts are obtained from the natural surroundings and used in fermenting carbohydrates into carbon dioxide and isopropyl ethanol. Wild yeast strains isolated from various winemaking regions are now available for purchase.

The economic potential of several naturally occurring substances produced by fungi is substantial. Fungi typically produce antimicrobials. Necessary antibiotics like fluoroquinolones and penicillin are extracted from fungi to prevent or slow down the multiplication of microorganisms and the degree of rivalry in the surroundings. Immune suppressants that lower the risk of organ rejection following transplantation and steroid hormone precursors used to control bleeding are among the valuable pharmaceuticals extracted from fungus. In addition, fungi are significant model study organisms because they are essential eukaryotic species. The red leaf mold, Cladosporium crassa, has been used to make significant strides in evolutionary biology.

Additionally, many significant genes first identified in S. cerevisiae were used as a springboard to identify comparable human genes. Contrary to the bacteria E Coli, which lacks inner membrane components and catalysts to identify peptides for exporting, the saccharomyces cell, a eukaryotic cell, generates and modifies proteins precisely the way human cells do. For genetic code research, fungi are, therefore, a far better organism to use. Like bacteria, yeasts are capable of genetic mutation, have a rapid generation rate, and grow readily in culture.

Fungus infections are becoming more common at an astonishing speed, which is extremely difficult for medical personnel to handle. This growth is directly tied to the rise in vulnerable people brought on by changes in medical practice, such as suppressive medications and intensive treatment. Additional factors contributing to the issue are HIV and other immunological disorders (Lockhart & Guarner, 2019). The epidermis, keratinized tissues, and mucous membranes are all affected by external and systemic fungal infections. Some of the most common skin conditions affecting thousands of people are categorized under this category. Although they are rarely life-threatening, they can have a devastating impact on a person’s overall well-being. In some instances, they may spread to other people or become intrusive. It is simple to diagnose and cure most superficial and subcutaneous fungal infections.

Systemic fungal infections may be brought on by an adaptive organism attacking a vulnerable host or by an invading virus indigenous to a particular region. Systemic infections have a high mortality and morbidity rate and can be fatal (Tucey et al., 2018). The precise frequency of systemic infections is difficult to estimate due to the challenging nature of identification and the fact that the causal agent is frequently only identified at postmortem. Organs like the lungs, liver, brain, and eyes are all susceptible to systemic fungus infections, commonly affecting those with compromised immune systems.

A fungus infection can occur only when the immune system is compromised or when the pathogens reach high concentrations. Although fungi cause infections, they are crucial to human existence. Fungi are essential nitrogen fixers in most environments, and most vegetation needs soil microorganisms to thrive. Fungi aid in health and nutrition by producing mushrooms. Additionally, they serve as fermenting organisms in producing bread, cheese, alcoholic drinks, and various other food items. Secondary metabolites from fungi are utilized to make drugs like antibiotics and blood thinners. Fungi serve as biological systems used to investigate eukaryotic genetics and biochemistry.

In order to prevent fungus infection, high cleanliness levels should be maintained. In addition, wearing clean and dry clothes should be avoided to avoid infection. The majority of people frequently wear their garments numerous times before washing them. If a person frequently wears dirty clothes, they risk developing fungal infections. Wear clean, dry clothing every day, especially your socks and underwear. Additionally, keeping nails short and clean helps prevent a fungal infection. To help prevent infection, always clip your fingernails and keep your toenails short. Never share nail clippers with others; always clean them before and after each usage. Finally, eating yogurt and taking probiotics should be done daily. Good bacteria are abundant in yogurt and other probiotics, which help prevent many fungus infections. These combat the bacteria responsible for these infections, and probiotics are also abundant in fermented meals.

Averill, C., Bhatnagar, J. M., Dietze, M. C., Pearse, W. D., & Kivlin, S. N. (2019). Global imprint of mycorrhizal fungi on whole-plant nutrient economics . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 116 (46), 23163–23168. Web.

Lockhart, S. R., & Guarner, J. (2019). Emerging and reemerging fungal infections . Seminars in Diagnostic Pathology , 36 (3), 177–181. Web.

Pathakumari, B., Liang, G., & Liu, W. (2020). Immune defence to invasive fungal infections: A comprehensive review . Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy , 130 (7), 110550. Web.

Tucey, T. M., Verma, J., Harrison, P. F., Snelgrove, S. L., Lo, T. L., Scherer, A. K., Barugahare, A. A., Powell, D. R., Wheeler, R. T., Hickey, M. J., Beilharz, T. H., Naderer, T., & Traven, A. (2018). Glucose homeostasis is important for immune cell viability during candida challenge and host survival of systemic fungal infection . Cell Metabolism , 27 (5), 988-1006.e7. Web.

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